The producers of A&W Root Beer and Cream Sodas, Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc., and A&W Concentrate Company have received final approval from a New York judge for their agreement to move forward. Given that the “Made With Aged Vanilla” label on A&W Root Beer and Cream Soda is a false claim, Keurig Dr. Pepper might be required to compensate consumers who claim they were fooled.
At first filed on August 24, 2020, in the U.S. District Court in Eastern New York, the class-action lawsuit Sharpe v. A&W Concentrate Co. claims that the soda manufacturer “misleadingly mentioned on the outside of the products’ labels” that aged vanilla had been added when, as the suit says, “the vanilla flavor arrives overwhelmingly — if not primarily — from a manufactured, synthetic source.”
“Plaintiffs allege that buyers understand defendants’ assertion to imply that the distinguishing flavoring originated from the vanilla plant, instead of a cheap poorer replacement for the original substance,” the lawsuit states.