Class Action Claims Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate Misleadingly Labeled

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A proposed class action alleges certain Green & Black’s dark chocolate products are mislabeled in that they do not contain the percentages of cacao that consumers have been led to expect.

The 21-page suit against Mondelez International and Mondelez Global says that although the front labels of Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate and Pure Dark Chocolate state that the chocolate contains 60, 70 or 85 percent cacao, the products’ back labels disclose that the principal chocolate ingredient is not cacao, but cocoa.

According to the complaint, cocoa is “an inferior, highly processed derivative of the cacao bean that has been stripped of the nutritional qualities that make dark chocolate appealing to consumers.” The lawsuit contends that consumers who reasonably relied on the Green & Black’s label when deciding whether to buy the chocolate were deceived into paying for an inferior product at a price they might not have paid had they known the truth.

“Plaintiff and the Class did not know, and had no reason to know, that the Products contained cocoa rather than cacao. While the ingredients statement on the Products’ back label discloses the truth about their contents, the front-label unambiguously represents that the chocolate consists in cacao, so reasonable consumers are given no reason to suspect that this is contradicted by representations on the back label.”

Per the case, Mondelez’s labeling of Green & Black’s chocolate violates the consumer protection laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

The case emphasizes that the products’ ingredients lists reveal that cocoa, and not cacao, is the primary chocolate ingredient. The complaint says that “[t]here is not [sic] mention of cacao butter, but only of cocoa butter”:

The lawsuit goes on to explain that cacao and cocoa, despite sounding similar, are very different as a result of how each is processed. Citing AllRecipes.com, the complaint states that the antioxidant, heart-protective and anti-cancer properties of cacao can be lost during the higher-temperature processing by which cocoa is made. 

Consumers would not have purchased the “inferior” Green & Black’s dark chocolate at the given price had they known it consisted of cocoa rather than cacao, the lawsuit argues. 

The suit looks to represent all persons or entities in the United States who made retail purchases of Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate and/or Pure Dark Chocolate during the applicable statute of limitations period. 

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