Walmart and other leading grocery stores such as Costco, Kroger, and Safeway are facing a lawsuit for misleading marketing. Yikes!
On July 29, Top Class Actions reported that supermarket chain Kroger and coffee brand Hawaiian Isles Kona Coffee (HIKC) Co. “agreed to pay a combined $14.3 million to resolve claims they violated trademark law by marketing coffee as originating in the Kona region.” Filed by the Kona coffee farmers, the lawsuit claims that retailers such as Walmart, Kroger, HIKC, Costco, Amazon, World Market, and more attempted to sell their own coffee beans as Kona beans, when in fact, they’re just “ordinary commodity coffee.” Since these grocery stores tried to market their own beans as coffee beans originating from the Kona region in Hawaii, this gave them a chance to potentially charge shoppers with a higher price for the product.
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The lawsuit claims that Kona coffee farmers were greatly affected by this practice of selling counterfeit beans. Not only does it damage the reputation of the region, but it also forces the farmers to sell their beans at a lower price in order to compensate for the excessive supply.
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According to Top Class Actions, “Kroger and HIKC haven’t admitted any wrongdoing but agreed to pay a combined $14.3 million to resolve these allegations.” This settlement will benefit those Kona coffee farmers who worked and sold their coffee from Feb. 27, 2015 to Feb. 14, 2022. As of this writing, the other companies who were also indicted in the lawsuit have not issued an official statement regarding the allegations.
