Snuggle Fabric Softener ‘120 Loads’ Claim Is Misleading, Class Action Alleges
Boren v. Henkel Corporation et al.
Filed: December 14, 2023 ◆§ 4:23-cv-01605
A class action accuses Henkel Corporation of falsely advertising its Ultra Snuggle liquid fabric softener given that a 96-fluid-ounce container can provide “nowhere close” to the amount of loads of laundry consumers are led to expect.
A proposed class action accuses Henkel Corporation of falsely advertising its Ultra Snuggle liquid fabric softener given that a 96-fluid-ounce container can provide “nowhere close” to the amount of softener needed to do the 120 loads of laundry consumers are led to expect.
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The 23-page lawsuit relays that despite the front label’s prominent claim that the product is sufficient for 120 loads, a tiny, diamond-shaped mark next to this claim refers consumers to a “multi-step maze of fine-print” on the back label that reveals that this number can be achieved only when doing “regular” loads as measured to “slightly below line 1” on the cap.
The suit argues that for most consumers, “regular” loads mean full loads of laundry. However, fill diagrams on the fabric softener’s back label indicate that “large loads” would require filling the cap to just above line two, the case relays.
“Because a laundry washing machine cannot be filled beyond full capacity, ‘large’ loads, as the Product employs the term, must mean full loads of laundry (what consumers expect). That being the case, it logically follows that a ‘Regular’ load (according to the Product, at least) is something less than a full load of laundry.”
The case alleges that the product’s front label is misleading because an average household doing full loads of laundry will therefore get no more than 60 loads out of the Ultra Snuggle fabric softener—a far cry from the front-label representations.
“Based on these diagrams, a consumer would need at least 192 fluid ounces (fl. oz.) to effectively treat 120 full loads of laundry (what the Product labels ‘large’ loads),” the complaint says. “However, despite this, the Product only provides a consumer with 96 fl. oz. of softener, or just approximately 50% of the amount of softener that the Product itself admits is necessary for 120 loads of laundry.”
Consumers like the plaintiff, a St. Louis resident, purchased the Ultra Snuggle fabric softener with the expectation that it would be sufficient for 120 loads of laundry, the filing shares. According to the case, they would not have paid as much for the product or bought it at all had they known they were being “cheated out of at least 50% of what they expect, based on [the defendant’s] own measurements.”
The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who purchased Ultra Snuggle liquid fabric softener within the past five years while in Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Hawaii, New York, Washington D.C., Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington or Connecticut.
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Hair Relaxer Lawsuits
Women who developed ovarian or uterine cancer after using hair relaxers such as Dark & Lovely and Motions may now have an opportunity to take legal action.
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