On March 5, 2018, named plaintiff Ketrina Gordon petitioned a California federal court to certify a California class of consumers who all similarly allege that candy-manufacturing giant, Tootsie Roll Industries Inc., has been under-filling boxes of its popular candies, Junior Mints and Sugar Babies.
In her complaint, originally filed on April 7, 2017, Gordon argues that Tootsie Roll Industries intentionally misled consumers by packaging Junior Mints and Sugar Babies in large opaque cardboard boxes that consumers are led to believe would be almost completely filled with the product. However, Gordon points out that a 3.5 oz. box of Junior Mints contains on average around 40.7% empty space or “slack-fill” and a 6 oz. package of Sugar Babies similarly contains around 33.6% empty space. The suit alleges that most reasonable consumers purchase the candies based upon the size of the box and are then subsequently disappointed to find far less product than they reasonably assumed the box would contain.
Gordon specifically alleges that Tootsie Roll Industries violated the Unfair Completion Law, the False Advertising Law and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act. The proposed class would include all California residents who purchased 3.5 oz. opaque boxes of Junior Mints and 6 oz. opaque boxes of Sugar Babies from February 10, 2013 to present.
The case is: Ketrina Gordon v. Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. et al., Case No.: 2:17-cv-02664 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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