Judge will not dismiss lawsuit claiming Poland Spring water is not from a spring

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New Hampshire Union Leader/Reuters

Jan 1, 2025 Updated 7 hrs ago


A federal judge in Connecticut refused to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing the former Nestle Waters North America of defrauding consumers by labeling its Poland Spring bottled water as "spring water."

While rejecting some claims in the proposed class action, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer in New Haven called it an open question whether Poland Spring qualified as spring water under the laws of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Poland Spring is now owned by Tampa, Florida-based Primo Brands, following multiple corporate transactions. Consumers sued Nestle Waters, then owned by Nestle, in 2017, saying it deceived them into overpaying for Poland Spring with labels declaring it to be "Natural Spring Water" or "100% Natural Spring Water."

The plaintiffs said "not one drop" of the 1 billion gallons sold annually in the United States came from a natural spring, and that the actual Poland Spring in Maine "ran dry" two decades before Nestle bought the brand in 1992.

Read more: https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/judge-will-not-dismiss-lawsuit-claiming-poland-spring-water-is-not-from-a-spring/article_9a21f87d-c6e8-5ec9-bc5b-a3133d4a8da4.html

[Marthe48]

1. Good thing this lawsuit isn't in Ohio

rwnj judges ruled that food labeled 'boneless chicken wings' doesn't mean it isn't boneless. Twice. The guy who brought the suit suffered serious injury when he swallowed a piece of bone in an order of boneless chicken.

Glad there is a federal judge who takes labeling terms seriously

[Wuddles440]

11. And the voters in Ohio...

rewarded such moronic and anti-consumer behavior by electing even more right wing, idiots to the state SC this past November. It's a race to the bottom and Ohio wants to be the winner.

[erronis]

2. Same for a whole lot of bottled water. False advertising.

More and more of this very expensive H2O in fancy packaging is tainted with harmful products (pesticides, PFAs, etc.)

[JohnnyRingo]

3. Just a name.

I don't think I ever thought Poland Spring Water was from a natural spring any more than Evian is shipped from a crystal clear French lake.
But if it claims to be, in words on the bottle from a specific spring, that should have been changed when Nestles took control.

They offered no excuse why, but I bet it changes now if it hasn't already been.

[unblock]

6. the problem isn't the name. once upon a time, they specifically claimed it was water from a natural spring

businesses are usually given a lot of leeway in terms of their names and branding. it's specific claims that are a problem.

there are many companies in central new jersey with "princeton" in their name that have nothing to do with the university, because there's a town called "princeton". obviously they are leveraging the prestige of the university, but they can simply say they named themselves after the town, not the university. it's only if they claim to have something to do with the university when they don't, then it becomes a problem.

similarly, there's an area in portland, maine called "poland spring", and the company can brand itself after that area. no problem, even though they are obviously insinuating that their product has something to do with a natural spring.

but the problem, and the lawsuit, is based on specific claims they used to make (but no longer make, afaik), that their water did indeed come from a natural spring.

[Eugene]

9. Their website still says "Natural Spring Water" and "See our wells."

Much of that Maine spring water is ground water pumped out of wild and pristine Massachusetts.

[Oopsie Daisy]

4. Wait until they find out that Deer Park water doesn't contain deer and isn't from a park.

[cloudbase]

5. And, I doubt anybody would want to drink the water from

Deer Park, Texas.

[ShepKat]

7. I saw a large dairy farm turn into a water factory

upper oneida county in ny. I knew quite a few who worked there.
When they bottled the water, MANY labels were placed on the bottles including
poland spring, aquafina, nestle... and others. 'Nirvana' I think it was called.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Most tap water in this country

is perfectly fine. It's a waste of money to buy a bottle of tap water, no matter where it's from.

[moniss]

14. The actual true statement about tap water supplied by a

treatment plant is "Any levels of EPA regulated substances are within permissible limits". I live by a treatment plant that is within limits but the residual treatment artifacts are a little gruesome. If you pour a glass of water and let it stand you get a kind of shimmering "scuzz" on top after a couple of hours. If you let it sit for several days and evaporate you have this brownish/blackish residue on the sides of the glass. I use an aftermarket 3 stage filtration system, Diet Coke, Milk and Cranberry Juice to take care of my hydration needs.

[GreenWave]

10. SCROTUS will say if they run the water over box springs or in the Spring...

it is spring water.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. And you're basing that on what?

I will repeat that anyone dumb enough to buy tap water in a bottle is, well, dumb.

[GreenWave]

13. How they let Mr. Immunity off the hook, delayed a ruling on that until way too late.

A very wrong ruling. Took state rights from Colorado... Hopefully none of this surprises anybody.

[moniss]

15. Depends on the filtration and

whether the bottle is plastic or glass. Since the recent revelations the last few years about plastics being ingested there are some signs of a few companies going back to glass for some products.