Class Action Alleges Coffee Mate Creamers Contain Fewer Servings Than Advertised

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A proposed class action claims certain Nestlé Coffee Mate products are misleadingly labeled in that they contain fewer servings than consumers are led to believe.

The 15-page case alleges that although the front labels of some of Nestlé USA, Inc.’s Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Caramel Latte, Vanilla Caramel, Chocolate Crème and Original flavored coffee creamers prominently represent that each container will provide a specific number of servings—i.e., “140 servings,” “210 servings,” “226 servings,” “311 servings,” “500 servings” or “790 servings”—the products actually offer “significantly fewer servings than represented.”

“This renders the Products’ serving size representations false and misleading,” the complaint alleges.

According to the lawsuit out of New York, “[t]here is no ambiguity” with regard to how a serving of the Coffee Mate products is measured, as the packaging clearly states that a serving size is equal to “1 TSP.” Measuring the number of teaspoons in each container “requires no special expertise whatsoever,” the lawsuit relays, stating that the plaintiffs’ counsel did so using only a measuring spoon and scale.

Per the case, the plaintiffs’ counsel “checked Defendant’s math” by weighing one teaspoon of each product, measuring the net weight of the product, i.e., the coffee creamer without the packaging, and performing “simple division” to determine the number of teaspoons, and therefore servings, in each container. The following table purports to show the results of the tests:

The lawsuit claims the tested Coffee Mate creamers were not “one-offs” and reflect a “systemic issue that holds true across Defendant’s Product line.” Because Nestlé included the number of servings on the front label of each creamer product, the company either measured the volume of the products and “intentionally misreported it” or “never bothered to measure the volume” and reported a number of servings that it knew may not be accurate, the case contends.

“Simply put, this is an instance of intentional fraud,” the complaint charges.

According to the lawsuit, reasonable consumers have purchased Nestlé’s Coffee Mate products without receiving the full amount of creamer they were promised.

The case looks to cover anyone in the U.S. who purchased any of the aforementioned products (excluding those who did so for resale), with a proposed state-specific subclass of buyers who purchased the products in New York.

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