Class Action Says Calling International Delight a Coffee Creamer Is Inaccurate

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A proposed class action contends that International Delight is not technically a coffee “creamer” since it lacks cream or dairy ingredients beyond a minimal amount of sodium caseinate.

The 12-page suit says that coffee cream is a specialized dairy product that “contains not less than 18 percent but less than 30 percent milkfat,” with added sweeteners and/or flavorings. Although “coffee creamer” appears on the front label of the International Delight products at issue, the items use water and palm oil in place of cream, purportedly for cost-cutting purposes, the case claims. 

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Overall, the International Delight products, made by defendant Danone North America Public Benefit Corporation, are not labeled in a way that distinguishes them from coffee creamers that include real cream, the complaint reads. 

A product’s statement of identity must be a name required by law or regulation, a common or usual name, or an appropriately descriptive term, the lawsuit states. “Coffee creamer” is not the International Delight products’ common or usual name since it is not uniform among “all identical or similar products” and is “confusingly similar” to items called “coffee creamer” that actually contain dairy ingredients such as cream, the complaint says. 

“The name of ‘coffee creamer’ applied to products without cream has not been established by common usage,” the case argues. 

The suit analogously shares that the FDA, for instance, warned a company who called its product “Just Mayo” that consumers may be misled since the item did not contain eggs. The “mayo,” like the “coffee creamer” in question, the case says, contained ingredients not permitted by the standards for mayonnaise “in contrast to decades of consumer familiarity with ingredients for standardized foods.” 

Lastly, the filing says that consumers value real cream over non-dairy coffee whiteners for its nutritional benefits and taste. 

The lawsuit looks to cover consumers in Illinois, Arkansas, South Dakota, Wyoming, North Carolina, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Mississippi, Virginia and Oklahoma who’ve bought International Delight coffee “creamer” within the applicable statute of limitations period. 

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