The world’s largest retail chain is being sued by a customer Marc Moschetta in a Manhattan federal court over cheese—woodsy cheese.
Bloomberg reports Walmart Stores Inc. are being accused of fraud for selling parmesan cheese said to be “pure,” but that in fact contains wood pulp as a filler. Tests conducted in an Bloomberg News investigation show as much as 10 percent cellulose, a wood based anti-clumping agent is found in Walmart brand of “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese.”
Ashlee Kieler with The Consumerist cites the lawsuit:
“Consumers reasonably rely on the label and believe [Walmart’s] statement that the product consists of ‘100%’ Parmesan cheese means no substitutes or fillers are present in the container,” the suit states. “Because the product does in fact contain fillers and substitutes, the ‘100%’ Parmesan claim is literally false and is also misleading to consumers.”
The man claims that he suffered injury and lost money as a result of Walmart’s allegedly deceptive, misleading, false, unfair, and fraudulent practices.
The lawsuit seeks class action status for the fraud claims.
To learn more about class action suits, click here. Turns out filling your cheese to to fill your pockets is going to be a mega profit-shredding move for the mega mart.
A California consumer filed a similar case against Kraft last week in San Francisco federal court. Samantha Lewin alleged that the company’s misrepresentations led shoppers to pay a premium for the millions of containers sold.
The grocery chain recalled the product from all of its 185 stores last week.
The New York case is Moschetta v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 16-cv-1377, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The California case is Lewin v. Kraft Heinz Foods Co., 16-cv-823, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).