Purina Sues Blue Buffalo For False Advertising And Disparagement
Independent testing shows Blue Buffalo is not being honest about its ingredients
PR Newswire
ST. LOUIS
ST. LOUIS, May 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Nestle Purina PetCare Company (Purina) today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in federal court in St. Louis against The Blue Buffalo Company Ltd., for false advertising, disparagement and unjust enrichment – including violations of the Federal Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. section 1125(a)).
A copy of the complaint and exhibits can be found at a website Purina has created to highlight its concerns: www.petfoodhonesty.com.
"This is not an action we take lightly," said Steven Crimmins, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Nestle Purina. "We believe consumers deserve honesty when it comes to the ingredients in the food they choose to feed their pets."
"Our commitment to owners and their pets is not a marketing ploy or advertising slogan," Crimmins added. "At Purina, what goes in the bag goes on the label."
Blue Buffalo's promotion, advertising and packaging repeatedly and unequivocally state that its pet food products contain "NO Chicken/Poultry By-Product Meals." In its complaint, Purina alleges that testing conducted by an independent laboratory revealed that several of Blue Buffalo's top-selling "Life Protection" pet food products contained significant percentages of poultry by-product meal. Testing was done from samples of multiple formulas of Blue Buffalo pet food purchased at retail stores on both the East and West Coasts.
Further details on the testing can be found in the complaint.
Independent testing also shows that Blue Buffalo "LifeSource Bits" contain poultry by-product meal and corn. In addition, several Blue Buffalo products promoted as "grain-free" actually contain rice hulls, despite Blue Buffalo stating on its website that its "grain-free" products will "free your pet from the grains and glutens that cause allergic reactions in some dogs."
The complaint estimates that Blue Buffalo spent approximately $50 million in 2013 to promote its claims that Blue Buffalo ingredients are superior to competitors. As a result, Blue Buffalo charges premium prices for its products – significantly more than the pet food products they use for comparison purposes on the Blue Buffalo website.
The lawsuit follows a March 2014 decision of the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which found that Blue Buffalo is engaging in misleading advertising practices with respect to its claims about competing products. The NAD decision recommended that Blue Buffalo correct its television ad campaigns by removing all of its allegations that Blue Buffalo's competitors are misleading consumers.
A copy of the NAD decision was attached as an exhibit to the Purina complaint.
Purina has been a leading provider of pet food and pet care products for more than 85 years, and Purina pet food is quality- and safety-checked multiple times before it is sold. Purina also maintains strict quality control over its manufacturing process – 99 percent of Purina pet food sold in the United States is manufactured at Purina plants in the United States. By contrast, 100 percent of Blue Buffalo pet food is outsourced to third-party manufacturers.
Purina's lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis. The case is Nestle Purina PetCare Company v. Blue Buffalo Company Ltd.
About Purina
Purina promotes responsible pet care, humane education, community involvement and the positive bond between people and their pets. The North American headquarters for Nestle Purina PetCare is located at Checkerboard Square in St. Louis, Mo., where the company was founded more than a century ago.
For more information: www.petfoodhonesty.com
SOURCE Nestle Purina PetCare Company
