Hershey is fighting lawsuits targeting product packaging and trying to end Reese’s case

Hershey has urged a US judge to throw out a lawsuit alleging it misled consumers about several Reese’s peanut butter candies, using its claim to dismiss what it says is litigation collectively without grounds for product packaging.

In a filing Wednesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Hershey said no reasonable consumer could believe its Halloween and Christmas-themed candies necessarily contain the “explicit sculpted artwork” displayed on the packaging .

Consumers who sued Hershey expressed disappointment at the lack of details about nine Reese’s products, including pumpkin-shaped candies with missing eyes and crooked mouths and a football-shaped candy that lacked stitch left it like an egg.

But Hershey said the four plaintiffs ignored disclaimers that such details were only a “DECORATION SUGGESTION” and other images that had no such details.

The company found it unreasonable to focus only on images of decorative carvings as a “presumed guarantee” of what Reese’s candies actually looked like.

“This lawsuit is yet another growing trend of baseless class actions based solely on a consumer’s selective, subjective, outcome-based interpretation of an isolated aspect of a product’s packaging without considering its full context.” , Hershey said.

“Not a single complainant alleges that the product was unfit for consumption or that it was anything other than what consumers have come to love and expect from this iconic brand – a delicious treat,” it added.

An attorney for the plaintiffs had no immediate comment Thursday.

Many other consumer class actions target packaging claims, such as whether products qualify as natural or whether they contain enough of a certain ingredient.

Florida plaintiffs suing Hershey, Nathan Vidal, Debra Kennick, Abdjul Martin and Eduardo Granados are seeking at least $5 million in damages.

The case is Vidal et al v Hershey Co, US District Court, Southern District of Florida, no. 24-60831.

(Reporting by Stempel in New York, editing by Marguerita Choy)