Customer Wants $5 Million from Starbucks, Claims Too Much Ice

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Summary: A woman claims Starbucks cheats its customers by giving too much ice in its cold drinks. 

Back in January, Trader Joe’s was slammed with a lawsuit for allegedly skimping on tuna in its cans. Now Starbucks may have to face legal wrath because it allegedly under-fills its iced drinks, CNN reports.

  

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An angry customer from Chicago filed a $5 million lawsuit against Starbucks, alleging that the coffee chain uses too much ice in its cold drinks. Plaintiff Stacy Pincus said that Starbucks advertises its drinks by fluid ounce but because of its ice that number is actually inaccurate. Pincus claims that Starbucks sells its drinks by cup size, not fluid ounce.

Jamie Riley, a spokesperson for Starbucks, said the lawsuit is without merit. Anyone who gets an “iced” drink is aware that ice is a component of the product. Riley said that if anyone is unsatisfied with their product they can ask for the drink to be remade.

It will be interesting to see the results of this case, considering it is industry standard to sell by cup size; and anyone who has ever received an iced tea, soda, etc. from a fast food chain has noticed that ice is often a huge component of their purchase. However, is ice used to mislead customers? In the lawsuit, for instance, Pincus pointed out that a Venti, which is advertised as having 24 fluid ounces, only has 14 ounces of liquid because of the ice. On Starbucks’ website, they list a Venti as having 24 fluid ounces, and they use that amount of determine its nutritional value.

While the Trader Joe’s underfilling tuna can lawsuit is still pending, Whole Foods was ordered to pay back consumers for overcharging on underfilled items so the Starbucks lawsuit isn’t as wild as it seems. In addition to paying back customers, Whole Foods was forced to pay a $500,000 fine and retrain its employees.

Source: CNN