The lawsuit’s been widely covered so usually I wouldn’t bother linking, but there’s been mockery over it, and the mockery is wrong.

Just look at the picture.

Almost anything you buy, the picture on the package is prettier than what’s inside, but the imagery on these candy wrappers is PhotoShop BS, a flat-out lie.

I stand with Cynthia Kelly, and hope Hershey pays her the $5M she’s asking.

Original link

Dec 29 (Reuters) - Hershey has been sued by a Florida woman who said its holiday-themed Reese’s peanut butter candies lack the artistic details shown on the packaging that make them worth buying.

In a proposed federal class action filed on Thursday and seeking at least $5 million, Cynthia Kelly accused Hershey of deceiving reasonable consumers by falsely promising that its candies would contain “explicit carved out artistic designs.”

She said she would not have paid $4.49 in October at an Aldi for a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins, had she known that the candies not only lacked the “cute looking” carved eyes and mouth shown on the packaging, but any carvings at all.

The complaint said Hershey’s labels “are materially misleading and numerous consumers have been tricked and misled by the pictures on the products’ packaging.”

It cited several videos on Google’s YouTube, and included illustrations such as a Reese’s Peanut Butter footBall shaped like a football, but missing the laces shown on the packaging.

Hershey did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for comment. Kelly’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a similar request.

The plaintiff filed her lawsuit in the federal court in Tampa, Florida.

She is seeking damages for Florida purchasers of Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins, White Pumpkins, Pieces Pumpkins, Peanut Butter Ghost, White Ghost, Peanut Butter Bats, Peanut Butter footBalls and Peanut Butter Shapes Assortment Snowmen Stockings Bells for violations of that state’s consumer protection laws.

Kelly’s lawyer has also filed lawsuits accusing Burger King and Taco Bell of selling food that when served looks less enticing than advertised.

The case is Kelly v Hershey Co, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, No. 23-02977.

    • highenergyphysics@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m not sure why people on here continue to pus the narrative that it’s one person getting paid.

      Has nobody here heard of a class action lawsuit before? Literally every post about this states it in the article.

      Smells like corporate astroturfing to me.

      • StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I’m always amused when people on Lemmy think corporations are so concerned about a topic under discussion by 7 people on an unknown social media site that it requires some clandestine intervention.

      • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOPM
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        11 months ago

        Sometimes, quite often actually, the astroturfing is provided by volunteers — people who simply love whatever corporation they’re defending, or libertarians who love corporations in general.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Most of these cases never do.

      But the point is to threaten. Because look at that false advertising? They shouldn’t be getting away with this or make it acceptable.

      • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Who cares? It’s chocolate. No one goes “oh this doesn’t look like chocolate, I’m offended.” They open it for the taste and it’s seasonal to go with the spirit of the holiday that is in correlation.

        I don’t see this as a reason to sue anyone.

        • Ech@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          You’re getting downvoted because anything that isn’t full-throated condemnation is being a “corporate apologist”, but is this really what we want to see corporations being held accountable for? That their chocolate shapes aren’t shaped “right”? They’re poisoning our planet and profiting off of slavery. This is the smallest of small things to be punishing them over and it’s being treated like some crowning achievement. They should 100% be litigated into oblivion, but this ain’t it. This is a joke and should be treated as such.

          • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 months ago

            But the worst things they do are not illegal and they are not going to be held accountable in any way for those

          • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOPM
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            11 months ago

            Right — much bigger and worse corporations than Hershey get away with much bigger and worse crimes, so this case should be dismissed.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      It’s a class action, so the settlement ultimately depends on the size of the class.