Woman is suing Hershey for $5 million claiming it lies about its products

A Florida woman has filed a lawsuit against The Hershey Company demanding $5 million over 'misleading' packaging.

When Cynthia Kelly from Tampa opened up her Reese's Peanut Butter Halloween treat she bought for $4.49 from Aldi, she was disappointed to find the product didn't exactly match the image on its packaging.

Despite the chocolate probably tasting as good as Reese's Peanut Butter products always are, Kelly was outraged at the 'deception' and has since filed a lawsuit in Florida's Middle District Court.

One of the products in question - a Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkin - has an orange and purple shiny packet, with the classic Reese's logo on it, alongside an image of a brown pumpkin with orange insides, the face carved into a smile.

And Kelly's issue with the product doesn't lie with the taste, but the fact that if the image on the packaging is meant to represent the product inside, it's not doing an accurate job.

The lawsuit states Kelly believed the candy would have 'a cute looking carving of a pumpkin’s mouth and eyes as pictured on the product packaging' - the 'artistic designs' the reason she bought the product.

Alas, Kelly's peanut butter pumpkin 'did not contain any of the artistic carvings of the mouth or eyes as pictured on the label,' the lawsuit claims.

And it's not just Hershey's Halloween pumpkin which has been left without a face either, with ghosts, bats, footballs, snowmen, and bell-shaped snacks also mentioned in the lawsuit - a ghost pictured in the legal documents showing it not matching the ghost on the package which has eye holes.

Kelly is accusing Hershey's of making labels for products which are 'materially misleading'.

And Kelly argues it's not just her who's been disappointed either, listing numerous YouTubers who shared videos to the platform broadcasting their similar surprise after opening their Reese's Halloween products to find they didn't exactly match the design on the packaging.

One YouTuber's caption reads: "Reese's Halloween Candy LIED to Me!"

The lawsuit claims: "Numerous consumers have been tricked and misled by the pictures on the Products’ packaging."

The lawsuit - a class action representing 'all consumers within the State of Florida who purchased one of the products' - subsequently accuses Hershey of '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.'

Kelly's lawsuit is seeking at least $5 million in compensation from Hershey.

A spokesperson for The Hershey Company declined to comment to UNILAD.

Topics: Food and Drink, US News, Social Media, YouTube

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.