2 min read- Trader Joe’s is facing a lawsuit over claims that its French Roast Low Acid coffee contains far less caffeine than customers expected.
- Plaintiffs say testing found the coffee had about half the caffeine of Trader Joe’s regular blends.
- The lawsuit accuses the company of misleading marketing and seeks damages plus changes to how the product is sold.
I need caffeine injected into my veins most mornings, so if I found out the coffee I bought had way less of it than promised, I’d want answers.
That seems to be the thinking behind a new lawsuit filed against Trader Joe’s, which accuses the chain of selling a coffee that looks like a standard fully caffeinated blend but allegedly delivers something much closer to a half-caff experience. The product at the center is Trader Joe’s French Roast Low Acid whole bean coffee, which several customers from California, New York, and Illinois claim contains significantly less caffeine than they expected.
According to the complaint, testing found that the coffee contains about half the caffeine of a regular blend. The suit says the product has 51 percent of the caffeine of Trader Joe’s Dark French Roast coffee and 45 percent of the caffeine of Trader Joe’s House Blend coffee. It also claims the French Roast Low Acid coffee tested even lower than some half-caff products sold by other brands, including Folgers and Puroast.
The plaintiffs say that in the coffee world, reduced-caffeine products are usually labeled as such, whether that means decaf or half-caff. Regular coffee, on the other hand, doesn’t need a special label announcing that it is fully caffeinated.
As the suit puts it, “full caffeinated coffee does not have any special labeling denoting that it is fully caffeinated, but ‘decaf’ and ‘half-caff’ coffees are labeled as such.” In this case, the plaintiffs argue that Trader Joe’s did not disclose that the product was allegedly functioning more like a reduced-caffeine option.
The suit also argues that shoppers had no practical way to know any of this before buying. Customers are “unable to discover the nature of Defendant’s misrepresentation,” the complaint says, because they cannot examine the coffee before purchase and testing caffeine levels requires scientific tools and knowledge beyond what any normal shopper would have on hand.
Taken together, the plaintiffs describe the coffee’s marketing as “false and deceptive advertising” and part of a pattern of “unlawful and unfair business practices.” They’re seeking monetary damages and want Trader Joe’s to stop selling the product in what they allege is a misleading way. They also want the company to reassess prior customer claims and more clearly address what, exactly, buyers are getting in the bag.