Warehouse retailer Costco and the company that makes Haagen-Dazs ice cream products have each been hit with nearly identical class action lawsuits in Chicago federal court, accusing the companies of selling chocolate-dipped ice cream bars that don’t actually contain chocolate.
On July 18, attorney Spencer Sheehan, of the firm of Sheehan & Associates P.C., of Great Neck, N.Y., filed the lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of named plaintiffs Lawrence Rice, of suburban Buffalo Grove, against Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, maker of Haagen-Dazs, and Mike Karlinski, of suburban Darien, against Costco.
According to the complaint, both Dreyer’s and Costco sell ice cream novelty treats that claim to be ice cream bars dipped in chocolate.
Specifically, the lawsuits take aim at the Kirkland Signature-brand Chocolate Almond Dipped Vanilla Ice Cream Bars, sold by Costco, and the Haagen-Dazs-brand Vanilla Milk Chocolate Almond Ice Cream Bars, made and distributed by Dreyer’s.
The lawsuits claim the products include pictures of chocolate chunks on the packaging, allegedly leading consumers to believe they are purchasing products containing chocolate.
However, the lawsuits assert, the coating on the ice cream bars does not contain enough actual chocolate, because the product contains no cocoa butter.
The complaints assert the law requires products advertised as containing chocolate must include cocoa butter.
Instead, the ice cream bars are coated in a mixture which contains cocoa powder, sugar, dairy and vegetable oils. The complaints said the products merely provide a “chocolatey taste,” and not actual chocolate.
The complaint includes a litany of quotes from premium chocolatiers and ice cream makers criticizing the use of vegetable oils to “stretch” the chocolate and save confectioners and ice cream novelty treat makers money, given steep input price disparities between products containing vegetable oils vs authentic cocoa butter.
However, the products are still sold at a “premium price” to consumers, who believe they are getting real chocolate.
“The representation of the Product’s coating as ‘Milk Chocolate’ and drizzled in milk chocolate with pictures of chocolate is misleading, and at best, a ‘half-truth,’ because the chocolate contains ingredients not found in real chocolate,” the complaints state.
They assert consumers, such as the named plaintiffs, would not have bought the ice cream bars if they had known they did not contain cocoa butter.
The complaints accuse Costco and Dreyer’s of violating Illinois’ consumer fraud law, as well as counts of breach of warranty, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.
The complaints seek to expand the action to include all Illinois residents who have purchased the ice cream bars.
The complaint seeks statutory damages, plus attorney fees.