- On December 9, 2019, the Seventh Circuit found that an Illinois federal district court properly tossed a proposed slack-fill class action against Fannie May, a Chicago-based chocolate maker. In 2018, Plaintiffs claimed that they relied on the size of the packaging to gauge the amount of product inside and would have paid less for the product had they known how much was actually inside. This week, the Seventh Circuit concluded that the plaintiffs’ request for damages was vague, as the plaintiffs did not allege that the pieces of chocolate in the boxes purchased were worth less than the amount they paid.
- In their complaint, plaintiffs noted that Fannie May deceived consumers by packaging chocolate in boxes that contained about 33% to 40% “slack fill.” Plaintiffs further argued that the slack fill served no functional purpose and that it only misled consumers into believing they were purchasing more chocolate than they actually were receiving. Fannie May argued that consumers knew exactly how much product they were getting because the product label contained the net weight of the candy and a piece count.
- The Seventh Circuit ruled that the consumers did not suffer concrete harm when they purchased allegedly underfilled boxes of chocolate. U.S. Circuit Judge Diane P. Wood noted that this case proves that “almost anything can give rise to litigation.” We will continue to monitor any developments involving slack fill cases.