LaCroix water. Photo: John Disney/ ALM
It’s become a cult favorite, but now LaCroix flavored sparkling water has become something else: the subject of a class action lawsuit.
Chicago firm Beaumont Costales recently announced that it has sued LaCroix’s parent company, National Beverage Corp., in Cook County for allegedly falsely branding its product’s ingredients as “natural” when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has classified them as “synthetic.”
Despite the relative commonality of these types of suits in recent years, the story garnered significant news coverage, likely because of the popularity of the product. And it probably didn’t hurt that Beaumont Costales said one of the synthetic ingredients in LaCroix products is also used in cockroach insecticide, a tidbit that made for catchy headlines.
In a report published a few days after the original news—and covered by several news outlets—Popular Science magazine deemed the water “safe,” but LaCroix still felt the reputational damage, asking its consumers in a tweet to "please stand with us as we defend our beloved LaCroix.” National Beverage also chastised what it called a “false” and “defamatory” lawsuit over which it would “seek actual and punitive damages.”
Part of the problem, consumer product labeling legal experts said, is that the law around the issue is murky, and the FDA is still working to develop a clear objective standard for what is “natural.”
Corporate Counsel spoke with some of these experts to understand how legal departments can mitigate, if not prevent, the chances of facing a lawsuit stemming from product labeling.
Coordinate With Other Departments
Whether your advertising legal work is handled in-house or outsourced, advertising copy of any sort must be discussed among the marketing, research and development, and in-house legal departments before it is run in any medium, said Larry Weinstein, a litigation partner and co-head of the false advertising and trademark group at Proskauer Rose.
“It is way too often the case that there is no eyes, or no adequate second pair of eyes on advertising because issue-spotting really is the key,” he said. “The bottom line is that for anything you tell the consuming public, you need make sure that it’s accurate.”
If the label includes the term "natural," Weinstein added, conversations between lawyers, R&D and marketing representatives should be occurring, and all the parties should be asking, "'What are the ingredients? Is there an issue about whether any of them can be described as natural?'"