Coca-Cola Sued Over Deceptive Claims for VitaminWater

The Coca-Cola Co. has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit claiming deceptive and unsubstantiated claims for its VitaminWater beverages.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, on behalf of James Koh and other plaintiffs.

The suit names as defendants, The Coca-Cola Co. and Energy Brands, which does business as Glaceau, a business unit of Coca-Cola North America. It claims the companies “misrepresented the nutritional content and health benefits of VitaminWater in violation of California’s consumer protection laws, according to court documents.

Coca-Cola called the suit frivolous

“This is ridiculous,” Coca-Cola spokesperson Diana Garza Ciarlante said in a statement. “Glaceau VitaminWater is clearly and properly labeled and shows the amount of vitamins and calories in the product. Consumers today are savvy, educated and are looking for more from their beverages than just hydration.”

Sales of VitaminWater are estimated at more than half a billion dollars annually, the papers said

“When I bought VitaminWater, frankly I thought I was doing myself a favor health-wise,” Koh, a resident of San Francisco, said in a release. “I was attracted by the prospect of getting extra vitamins. But I had no idea that I was actually getting almost a Coke’s worth of sugar and calories. There’s no way I would have spent money on that, had I known.”

The suit claims that advertising and marketing campaigns and product labeling for the beverage “deceptively promote it as an alternative to soft drinks, when it is sugar water, with a few added vitamins.” It goes so far as to say that “VitaminWater may actually harm consumer’s health,” according to court documents.

“Indeed, the amount of sugar in a bottle of VitaminWater is roughly equal to a can of soda,” the papers said. “The defendants have made millions at the expense of the public health and trust, and continue to make millions through these unfair, unlawful and fraudulent advertising and marketing practices.”

Coca-Cola thinks otherwise.

“Many people know that they are not receiving adequate nutrients from their diets so they have turned to products like Glaceau VitaminWater in order to help supplement what they are not receiving from the foods they eat,” Garza Ciarlante said. “This is not about protecting the public interest. This is about increasing the readership of CSPI’s increasingly irrelevant newsletter.”

The suit covers purchases of the beverages from Jan. 15, 2005 to present.

Koh is requesting class action status, a trial by jury and punitive and compensatory damages, which would be determined at trial.