Nestle SA’s Poland Spring Water unit has duped US consumers into paying premium prices for ordinary ground water that is pumped from some of Maine’s most populated areas, rather than from natural springs as the company advertises, according to a lawsuit.
While Poland Springs says its water bottles contain “100 percent natural spring water” from a source deep in Maine’s woods, the complaint filed on Aug. 15 in federal court in Connecticut claims that Nestle Waters North America has bottled well water that does not meet the US Food and Drug Administration’s definition of spring water.
The suit, which includes claims for breach of contract and fraud, also seeks unspecified damages for violations of state laws including in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
None of Poland Spring Water’s eight purported “natural spring” sites contains a genuine spring under FDA rules, according to the suit.
“One or more” of the company’s largest volume groundwater collection sites — which the suit says supply up to 99 percent of the water in Poland Spring Water products — are near a current or former refuse pit, landfill or petroleum dump site, the plaintiffs said.
Even the historic Poland Spring site in western Maine, which displays a stream of mineral water shielded behind glass, is no longer natural but instead generated by a machine that pumps it out of the ground, according to the complaint.
“To consumers, ‘spring water’ from a naturally occurring spring signifies purity and high quality and commands a premium price compared to defendant’s non-spring drinking water products or filtered tap water,” according to the proposed class-action suit filed on behalf of consumers who have bought the water.
“To illicitly capture that premium, defendant, since it began selling the Poland Spring brand in 1993, has bottled common groundwater and illegally mislabeled it as ‘100 percent Natural Spring Water,’” it said.
While Poland Spring’s water products are not contaminated, because the company disinfects and in some cases purifies the groundwater it collects, the suit maintains the company’s claims are misleading, because the water comes from wells in low-lying populated areas near potential sources of contamination.
In a statement, Nestle Waters vowed to fight the suit.
“The claims made in the lawsuit are without merit and an obvious attempt to manipulate the legal system for personal gain,” according to a statement the company issued on Saturday.
“Poland Spring is 100% spring water. It meets the US Food and Drug Administration regulations defining spring water, all state regulations governing spring classification for standards of identity, as well as all federal and state regulations governing spring water collection, good manufacturing practices, product quality and labeling. We remain highly confident in our legal position,” it said.
According to the Web site for the town of Poland Spring, a homesteader named Hiram Ricker in the mid-1800s declared that the mineral spring on his family’s property cured his dyspepsia, which caused people to flock to the area to take advantage of the spring’s curative powers.
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