The jury found Pom did not meet its burden. Pom’s difficulty was not in proving that Coke had made a false or misleading statement, even though Coca-Cola’s attorneys argued that it had followed the FDA’s guidelines in creating its labels for the product, which allow a description of “flavored” in the labeling of a product where it is not a significant ingredient.
Rather, the jury decided in favor of Coke because Pom had not shown that consumers had been deceived by Coke’s labeling. The verdict highlights the Lanham Act’s limited purpose: it is not a panacea for policing false statements made in connection with the sale or advertising of products.
Since the jury found no liability, it did not consider Coke’s defense of unclean hands, which was based on evidence that Pom itself had sold juice-blend products containing even less real fruit juice than the Minute Maid drink at issue in the case.
Pom is no stranger to the Lanham Act. In 2011, another federal jury found that Pom had not proved that Ocean Spray’s pomegranate cranberry juice drink contained false or misleading statements despite arguments by Pom that it included only a trace amount of pomegranate judice. In 2010, Pom succeeded in convincing a jury that Welch made false statements regarding similar pomegranate-flavored products and that those statements deceived customers, but awarded no damages to Pom after finding that Pom failed to show that it was injured by Welch’s actions.
Pom Wonderful v. Coca-Cola was litigated over the course of eight years. Long before the case was decided by a jury, it went to the U.S. Supreme Court on another Lanham Act issue: whether this type of claim under the Lanham Act is foreclosed by the Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act, which regulates the misbranding of food. The Court held that the FDCA does not trump the Lanham Act, and thus companies cannot rely on their compliance with FDA regulations to protect them from false advertising claims.
Bona Law attorneys are experienced in the prosecution and defense of Lanham Act claims. We also offer counseling to food-industry clients that are forced to comply with the competing requirements of FDA label regulation, the Lanham Act, and other deceptive advertising laws. Please contact us if you have been injured by a competitor’s false statements or if you’ve been accused of doing the same.