Hershey attacks lawsuits targeting product packaging, seeks to end Reese's case

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Hershey urged a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it misled consumers about several Reese's peanut butter candies, using its request to level a broadside against what it considers baseless class action litigation over product packaging.

In a Wednesday filing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida federal court, Hershey said no reasonable consumer could believe its Halloween- and Christmas-themed candies necessarily contained the "explicit carved out artistic designs" shown on packaging.

The consumers suing Hershey expressed disappointment with the lack of details on nine Reese's products, including pumpkin-shaped candies missing eyes and crooked mouths, and a football-shaped candy whose lack of stitching left it resembling an egg.

But Hershey said the four plaintiffs ignored disclaimers that such details were only a "DECORATING SUGGESTION," and other images that lacked such details.

The company called it unreasonable to focus only on images with decorative carvings as a "supposed guarantee" of how Reese's candies actually looked.

"This lawsuit is yet another in a growing trend of baseless class actions founded on nothing but a consumer's selective, subjective, and result-driven interpretation of one isolated aspect of a product's packaging without considering its full context," Hershey said.

"Not a single plaintiff claims the product was unfit for consumption or was anything other than what consumers have come to love and expect from this iconic brand--a delicious treat," it added.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs had no immediate comment on Thursday.

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

The 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, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 24-60831.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)