TGI Friday’s Potato Skin Snacks Named in False Labeling Class Action [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on June 17, 2020
Troncoso v. Tgi Fridays Inc.
Filed: March 27, 2019 ◆§ 1:19cv2735
A proposed class action filed against TGI Friday’s Inc. claims the company’s name-brand “Potato Skins Snacks” do not actually contain potato skins.
Case Updates
June 17, 2020 – TGI Friday’s, Utz Escape Lawsuit
United States District Judge Katherine Polk Failla has dismissed claims against TGI Friday’s and Utz Quality Foods LLC from the proposed class action detailed on this page, with Inventure Foods Inc. left as the lone defendant.
Though the initial case named only TGI Friday’s as a defendant, an amended complaint filed July 11, 2029 added Inventure Foods and Utz Quality Foods to the fray. In a June 8, 2020 opinion, Judge Polk Failla found the plaintiff failed to plausibly allege that “a nexus existed between TGIF and Utz” and any misleading statements included on the product’s packaging given the former “merely licensed its name and trademark to Inventure” and the latter “was nothing more than Inventure’s parent company."
Moreover, the judge dismissed the plaintiff’s claim for injunctive relief given the consumer failed to allege she intended to buy the snack product in the future.
Judge Polk Failla’s opinion and order can be found here.
A proposed class action filed against TGI Friday’s Inc. claims the company’s name-brand “Potato Skins Snacks” do not actually contain potato skins.
The case alleges that TGI Friday’s, seeking to capitalize on consumers’ desire for healthier snacks, deceptively represents on packaging that its products – specifically its TGI Fridays “Cheddar & Bacon,” “Bacon Ranch,” and “Sour Cream & Onion” Potato Skins varieties – contain potato skins when the ingredients lists make no mention of them. In fact, the suit says, the only potato ingredients listed on the back of the snack’s packaging are “potato flakes” and “potato starch,” which the complaint alleges are separated from skins during industrial production. Images from the complaint have been included below.
The lawsuit claims consumers associate potato skins with health and nutrition, pointing to several sources that tout the food’s vitamin and mineral content. TGI Friday’s, the suit alleges, attempted to appeal to consumers’ desire for nutritious foods and deceptively claimed its snacks contained potato skins when they were merely an imitation product.
The lawsuit argues that consumers paid a premium price for the defendant’s products and would not have purchased the snack if they had known it didn’t contain genuine potato skins.
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