Starbucks, a global coffee franchise company, faced a class먹튀검증 action lawsuit for selling drinks that contained fruit in the product name but did not actually contain fruit.

On the 18th (local time), Reuters reported that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York did not accept Starbucks’ request to dismiss 9 out of 11 lawsuits related to some of its fruit drinks.

Previously, in August of last year, American consumers filed a class action lawsuit claiming that Starbucks’ fruit drinks such as ‘Mango Dragonfruit’, ‘Pineapple Passion Fruit’, and ‘Strawberry Acai’ did not contain actual fruit. They requested compensation for damages because, contrary to the product’s name or advertisement, it did not contain mango, passion fruit, or acai. The amount of compensation to the victim group claimed by the plaintiff is said to be at least $5 million (approximately KRW 6.6 billion).

The plaintiffs alleged that Starbucks violated each state’s consumer protection laws. The main ingredients of the drinks that were the cause of the lawsuit were water, grape juice concentrate, and sugar, and it was claimed that Starbucks overestimated the ingredients by naming the products incorrectly.

Starbucks argued that the product name merely described the taste of the drink and not its ingredients. It was argued that a rational consumer would not have been confused, and that the consumer’s doubts could have been sufficiently resolved by store staff.

However, Judge John Cronan said he made this decision, saying, “Many reasonable consumers would expect the drink to contain fruit, as its name suggests.”

Considering that some Starbucks beverages are named after ingredients, such as ‘Iced Matcha Latte’ containing actual matcha and ‘Honey Citrus Mint Tea’ containing actual fruit and mint, consumers are likely to believe that the fruit drinks also contain actual fruit. I saw that I could think. However, it was not believed that Starbucks was trying to deceive consumers or take unfair advantage.

Starbucks, which is facing a lawsuit due to this court decision, said in a statement, “(The claims contained in the complaint) are inaccurate and unreasonable,” and “We will begin defending against these claims.”