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A famous global chocolate maker has been pressured to dubiously admit in court that its chocolate isn’t so great after all.
The story begins in 2022 when Consumer Reports ran a story about chocolate bars containing lead and cadmium. One of the world’s top chocolate producers, Lindt and Sprüngli, was implicated in the story.
Lindt is especially famous for claiming its chocolates are “expertly crafted with the finest ingredients” and “safe, as well as delightful.”
Responding to the story, several consumers from Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, and New York filed suit against Lindt in 2023, arguing that its marketing was clearly fraudulent.
#VantageOnFirstpost: Top Swiss chocolatier Lindt & Sprungli is disputing claims brought by US consumers in a lawsuit concerning the levels of heavy metals found in its chocolate bars. Is Lindt damaging its reputation to save itself from legal drama? @Palkisu tells you. pic.twitter.com/DCfg5ypNuj
— Firstpost (@firstpost) November 13, 2024
“[C]onsumers insisted in the class action lawsuit that they had paid premium prices for Lindt because they believed they were ‘purchasing quality and safe dark chocolate,’” according to Fortune magazine.
Here’s where the story takes a wild turn.
In a desperate bid to avoid losing, Lindt’s attorneys argued that the brand’s marketing claims were “puffery,” which was defined as “exaggerated advertising, blustering, and boasting upon which no reasonable buyer would rely.”
Ouch.
Yet despite this admission, Lindt continues to maintain its products are excellent and that the Consumer Reports’ story is false.
“Lindt & Sprungli disagrees with all the allegations made in the US lawsuit,” the company told AFP late Monday. “Our Lindt & Sprungli quality and safety procedures ensure that all products comply with all applicable safety standards and declaration requirements and are safe to consume.”
As for the “puffery” argument made in court, the company claims it was just a clever “technical” legal move “used to clarify that an advertising challenged by plaintiffs is not sufficiently objective to support the specific false advertising claim being made.”
Despite seemingly once again admitting that its products are not excellent, the company nevertheless still stands by its dubious claims of “excellence.”
“Our consumers can have full confidence in that,” the company told AFP.
Maybe the consumers who didn’t sue you…
Responding to all this, social media users were mainly full of jokes.
Look:
Damn. I’d rather be unleaded.
— SacredDuty (@SacredDuty2023) November 13, 2024
expertly crafted with the finest of metals
— mike jones (@RealMikeJomes) November 13, 2024
How do you know it wasn’t high quality lead?
— Daniel Robinson (@DanielsXacct) November 13, 2024
We found the real reason chocolate makes you gain weight.
— Christopher Cottleston Robin (@schopenhorror) November 13, 2024
I’ve never been so conflicted. Lindt chocolate is the best. Maybe a little bit of lead is okay?
— D. Scott Nettleton (@dsnettleton) November 13, 2024
How does lead get into chocolate???
Like, “oops, somebody dropped a few #2 pencils in the machine”?
— Check One Two (@hcasan0va) November 13, 2024
I’m going to say that this was a conspiracy to remove dark chocolate from everywhere.
Very hard to come by and nobody seems to care
— John O (@Reactivated_Usr) November 13, 2024
— Charles Nichols’ 13th year of 2A lawsuit (@CRTC_Nichols) November 13, 2024
Lindt last made headlines around the start of the year when it was accused of allowing prohibited child labor practices among its cocoa farmers.
“Ghanaian children help produce cocoa for Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli, according to a recent report by Swiss public television SRF,” SWI swissinfo reported at the time.
“SRF’s report revealed a number of children working in Lindt & Sprüngli’s supply chain. In the village of Mfenibu, for example, six-year-old Kennedy and his eight-year-old brother Ebenezer were collecting and carrying cocoa pods,” the reporting continued.
“I have to rely on the children,” their widowed grandmother, cocoa farmer Lucy Ajubie, told the outlet, adding that she was in debt.
Lindt responded to the allegations with a written statement deflecting blame and arguing that “fighting child labour requires efforts on the part of governments, non-governmental organisations, companies, local institutions, schools, and farmers.”
In fairness to the company, since 2016 it’s been making unannounced visits to coca farmers to check for child labor.
“Over the course of 8,491 surprise visits in 2021, the company discovered 87 child workers,” SWI notes.
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