Class Action Alleges BPI Sports ‘Slack Fills’ Containers of Supplement Powder

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The maker of BPI BCAA dietary supplement powder has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the company unlawfully “slack fills” containers of the product with “an unreasonable and unnecessary amount of non-functional empty space.”

The 25-page complaint against BPI Sports, LLC states that the company sells its supplement powders in opaque plastic containers filled with “much less product” than the containers’ size indicates. This practice, known as “slack filling,” is intentionally deceptive in that it prevents a reasonable consumer from seeing inside the product’s container, which the case notes can lead the buyer to believe the package contains more product than it does. The lawsuit alleges BPI fills its containers to only approximately “25-66%” capacity with product, including the space taken up by a plastic scoop.

“Plaintiffs and Class Members do not know, did not know, and have no reason to know at the time of purchase, that the BPI Supplement Powders’ packaging contains a significant amount of empty space, because the containers are opaque with no view of the contents,” the suit says. “Further, the containers do not include a fill line, and the net weight labeling provides no indication of the volume contained therein.” 

According to the case, non-functional slack fill allows for BPI Sports to “lower its costs by deceiving consumers into paying a price premium” for what they believe is a large amount of product. California’s Business and Professions Code explicitly provides that it is misleading for a container that does not allow a consumer to fully view its contents to contain non-functional slack fill, the lawsuit argues. Moreover, at the national level, the case continues, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) prohibits products that are misbranded from entering into interstate commerce. In pertinent part, the lawsuit stipulates that “a food shall be deemed to be misbranded if its container is so made, formed, or filled as to be misleading,” the complaint says.

As the lawsuit tells it, consumers have reasonably relied on BPI Sports’ representations with regard to its Best BCAA, One More Rep, M.R. Vortex, Clinical Essential Aminos, Pump HD, Nitro HD and Keto Weight Loss supplement powders. Had the plaintiff and other consumers known the products’ containers were filled with non-functional slack fill, they would not have bought the supplements, or would have paid less, the suit says.

The case looks to cover a nationwide class of consumers who bought one or more containers of BPI supplement powders within the last four years, as well as two California-only subclasses.