PORTLAND, Maine — A group of bottled water drinkers have brought a class action lawsuit against the company behind Poland Spring, alleging that the Maine business has long deceived consumers by mislabeling common groundwater.
The lawsuit was filed in a Connecticut federal court on Tuesday and accuses Nestle Waters North America, Inc. of a “colossal fraud perpetrated against American consumers.”
The civil suit was brought by 11 people from the Northeast who collectively spent thousands of dollars on Poland Spring brand water in recent years. It is seeking millions of dollars in damages for a nationwide class and appears to hinge on whether the sources of Poland Spring water meets the Food and Drug Administration’s definition of a spring.
The suit comes as the company, a subsidiary of the Swiss food giant Nestle, is looking to expand its operations in Maine.
But the 325-page lawsuit, which was filed by lawyers from four firms, claims that none of the company’s Maine water sources meets the federal definition for spring water and that the company has “politically compromised” state regulators. Rather than spring water, Nestle Waters is actually purifying and bottling groundwater, some of which comes from sites near waste and garbage dumps, the suit claims.
For instance, the suit claims that the company’s wells in Poland, Maine, have never been scientifically proven to be connected to a spring and draw in surface water, which cannot legally be called spring water. It further alleges that the company has put water from some of these wells through a purification process that disqualifies it as spring water under federal regulations.
The suit makes similar claims about Poland Spring water sources in Hollis, Fryeburg, Denmark, Dallas Plantation, Pierce Pond Township and Kingfield, Maine.
“The claims made in the lawsuit are without merit,” said a spokesperson for Nestle Waters. “Poland Spring is 100 [percent] spring water.”
This is not the first time that Nestle Waters has faced such allegations. In 2003, it settled a class action lawsuit alleging that Poland Spring water doesn’t come from a spring. In that case, the company did not admit the allegation but reportedly agreed to pay about $10 million in discounts to consumers and charity contributions.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Lawsuit claims Poland Spring a ‘colossal fraud,’ selling groundwater,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Jake Bleiberg, please follow this link to the BDN online.
