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Supreme Court Bans Juice Companies From False Advertising

Cassie Paton |
June 12, 2014 | 10:10 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

We're going to need to see a list of ingredients. (Flickr user kevlar/Creative Commons)
We're going to need to see a list of ingredients. (Flickr user kevlar/Creative Commons)
A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court has made it so that the makers of fruit drinks and other food products can be sued for false advertising if their labels are misleading.

The decision stemmed from a false-advertising claim against one of Coca-Cola's Minute Maid products, which was advertised as a Pomegranate Blueberry drink even though just .3 percent of it was pomegranate juice, according to the L.A. Times.

The claim, which had previously been thrown out by a federal judge in Los Angeles, was made by the makers of POM Wonderful juice drinks. POM Wonderful is fighting its own battle against the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly overstating the health benefits of its products.

The lawsuit was originally rejected in part because of one rule that protects food and drink makers as long as their product labels list the true ingredients in fine print. But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the court's opinion, said another federal law allows for lawsuits for "unfair competition through misleading advertising or labeling."

So if your kid is opening up a lemonade stand this summer, be sure to explain the risks of false advertising.

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