By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – A federal judge in Connecticut refused to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing former Nestle (NS:) Waters (NYSE:) North America is defrauding consumers by labeling its Poland Spring bottled water as “spring water.”
While dismissing 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 could qualify 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 Primo Brands, following multiple corporate transactions. The Tampa, Florida-based company had no immediate comment on Tuesday.
In 2017, consumers sued Nestle Waters, then owned by Nestle, saying it tricked them into overpaying for Poland Spring with labels that listed it as “natural spring water” or “100% natural spring water.”
Prosecutors said that “not one drop” of the 1 billion gallons sold annually in the United States came from a natural source, and that the actual Poland Spring in Maine “dried up” two decades before Nestle bought the brand in 1992.
In seeking the dismissal, Nestle Waters said geologists and officials in eight states agreed Poland Spring complied with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s rule defining spring water, and each state approved its sale as “spring water.”
But the judge quoted a former Syracuse University earth science professor hired by prosecutors who said it appeared Nestle Waters was using man-made springs and extracting water from ponds and other surface water instead of “real” spring water.
Meyer agreed with Nestle Waters that the plaintiffs had no standing to demand new labels, because they now knew the alleged “truth” about Poland Spring and could buy other brands of water.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nestle Waters was Nestle’s North American bottled water business. In 2021, Nestle sold it to two private companies who renamed it BlueTriton. That company merged with the former Primo Water (NYSE: ) in November to form Primo Brands.
The case is Patane v. Nestle Waters North America Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 17-01381.
