Popular soft drink makers Pepsi-Cola Co, Coca-Cola Co and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc are facing class action lawsuits. The suit accuses the companies of spreading misleading information concerning their soft drinks. In other words, the defendants assured customers that their diet drinks offer health benefits. They made consumers think these drinks don’t have any calories and promote weight loss. However, this isn’t true, as these so-called ‘’diet products’’ consist of artificial sweetener aspartame. This means that using these beverages one will gain weight instead of losing it, as the complaint notes.
According to the scientific sources, sweeteners, like aspartame which contains in these ‘’diet drinks’’ have the opposite effect, as the consumer fraud lawsuit mentions. That’s to say, it leads to weight gain and those consumers who use ‘’diet beverages’’ produced by big soft drink makers may get a metabolic disease, diabetes, as well as cardiovascular disease. Thus, the companies are cheating consumers when advertising these drinks as ‘’diet.’’
Details
It’s worth pointing out that the lawsuits filed against soft drink makers have different plaintiffs, but refer to the violation of the same laws. These include laws concerning negligent and intentional misrepresentation, also false advertising and deceptive business practices, breach of express and implied warranty. Furthermore, all the lawsuits claim aspartame may result in weight gain. Actually, a number of studies prove this point, among them, is the research carried out by Dana Small from Yale University. The results of the study showed among the ingredients of low-calorie beverages are artificial sweeteners. For this reason ‘’diet’’ drinks have a sweet taste. The negative side is that these elements interfere with the body’s metabolism and may result in sad consequences.
According to the lawsuit, the process of metabolizing calories which you consume in a mismatched condition may be ineffective. As a consequence, consumers may gain more weight in case of using ‘’diet drinks,’’ as the Coca-Cola suit asserts. Moreover, certain researchers revealed even if beverages are sweet and contain low calories; they still increase a person’s appetite and cause weight gain.
Plaintiffs
The plaintiffs who filed the consumer fraud lawsuits against soft drink makers are the following: Evan Geffner and Ivan Babsin brought the suit against Coca-Cola, Elizabeth Manuel and Vivien Grossman- against Pepsi and Yasmin Excevarria and Joette Phoenix – against Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Dr Pepper/Seven Up Inc.
The plaintiffs of all the lawsuits against soft drink makers say they were suffering from obesity for a long time. In order to lose weight, they made up their minds to purchase ‘’diet drinks.’’ The plaintiffs made such a decision based on the companies’ fake marketing concerning health benefits of their products.
What the plaintiffs seek
The plaintiffs seek class certification of any person from New York who purchased diet drinks produced by the defendant companies on October 16, 2011, or after it. Additionally, they seek damages and restitution for the class. The lawsuits ask the court to make defendant soft drink makers stop their fake marketing practices.
