Florida Woman Sues Hershey for $5 Million for ‘Deceptive’ Reese’s Packaging

A Tampa, Florida, woman is coming after the Hershey Company in a $5 million lawsuit for “misleading” consumers with Reese’s candy packaging.

Cynthia Kelly is suing the chocolate business due to seasonal candies such as the Halloween Reese’s not being as detailed as the company’s branding may suggest, reports the New York Post. 

While the popular treat’s packaging displays a jack-o-lantern with a spooky face, the actual product is just shaped like a plain pumpkin. The lawsuit, filed in Florida’s Middle District Court, also complains that the brand’s peanut butter-chocolate “footballs” actually look like eggs.

Florida woman sues Hershey for $5M over ‘misleading’ Reese’s packaging that ‘trick’ customers https://t.co/vdcrYDBIuf pic.twitter.com/kDDMhrONWY

— New York Post (@nypost) December 30, 2023

“Hershey’s labels for the Products are materially misleading, and numerous consumers have been tricked and misled by the pictures on the Products’ packaging,” the complaint, obtained by the Post, reads.

“This is a class action against Hershey for falsely representing several Reese’s Peanut Butter products as containing explicitly carved-out artistic designs when there are no such carvings in the actual products,” the suit continued.

Kelly launched the strange class-action lawsuit after she bought a $4.49 pumpkin candy, apparently believing it “contained a cute looking carving of a pumpkin’s mouth and eyes as pictured on the product packaging.”

The woman claims she would not have purchased the item if she had known that the face was not actually on it. 

“Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins product that Plaintiff purchased did not contain any of the artistic carvings of the mouth or eyes as pictured on the label,” the lawsuit states.

Kelly’s complaint features several other seasonal Hershey products, including chocolates shaped like ghosts, bats, snowmen, and bells. 

The class-action lawsuit will cover “all consumers within the State of Florida who purchased one of the products.”

The complaint also argues that while Reese’s packaging is “deceptive,” it was not always that way, claiming that the products matched the graphics about “two or three years ago.”