A woman from the Tampa area has filed a federal lawsuit against The Hershey Company, alleging deceptive advertising of its Reese’s treats related to autumn and winter.
The claim asserts that the products did not accurately represent the packaging, lacking features such as mouths and eyes. Cynthia Kelly, who filed the class-action suit, is seeking an astonishing $5 billion in damages.
The lawsuit, filed in Florida’s Middle District Court on Thursday, includes various Reese’s products such as Peanut Butter Pumpkins, White Pumpkins, Pieces Pumpkins, Peanut Butter Ghosts, White Ghosts, Peanut Butter Bats, Peanut Butter Footballs, and Shapes Assortment Snowmen Stockings Bells. WFTV in Orlando, a sister station of Action News Jax, reported on the case.
“Hershey’s labels for the Products are materially misleading and numerous consumers have been tricked and misled by the pictures on the Products’ packaging,” the lawsuit said.
The document featured a photo gallery that compared the packaging of various products to their actual shapes. Among them was a football-shaped item, which Kelly claimed resembled more of an egg. The document proposed alternative packaging with more accurate representations of the enclosed sweets.
In the filing, Kelly’s lawyer, Anthony J. Russo, based in Delray Beach, included links to YouTube videos where content creators expressed dissatisfaction with the chocolates’ lack of detailing.
“Reese’s what are you doing,” the lawsuit quoted. “Look at the picture on the packet. It’s like a pumpkin with faces and a little mouth — then you open up the packet and you are presented with that monstrosity.”
Kelly stated that thousands of individuals suffered due to the packaging discrepancies. Alongside the monetary penalty, she is requesting the judge to mandate the company to rectify its packaging. Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell has been assigned to preside over the case.
