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Costco is facing a class action lawsuit accusing the warehouse chain of falsely advertising that its Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken contains no preservatives, court documents show.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges that Costco’s signage and website in its stores “gives the general impression that the Rotisserie Chicken contains no added preservatives.” But the lawsuit goes on to claim that these claims are false, arguing that “the Rotisserie Chicken is made with two added preservatives: sodium phosphate and carrageenan.”
“The presence of sodium phosphate and carrageenan, added preservatives that function as such in the Rotisserie Chicken, contradict the overall impression that Costco’s ‘No Conservatives’ representations and advertisements create,” said the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Anatasia Chernov and Bianca Johnston.
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The plaintiffs argued that customers, including themselves, make purchasing decisions based on whether a food product is “preservative-free” and that they could not determine whether it contained added preservatives before purchasing the chicken.
A customer picks up a rotisserie chicken at a Costco store in Napa, California. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The lawsuit alleges that any listing of the ingredients, if made public at all, appeared only in small print on the back of the label and provided no explanation for their preservative function. The lawsuit alleged that these disclosures were inadequate to refute the “no preservatives” claims that Costco prominently made.
A customer selects a rotisserie chicken at a Costco store in Florida. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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It is also alleged that the company had superior knowledge of how the ingredients functioned and failed to share this information with consumers.
He also said that “Costco’s own ingredient list contradicts its marketing. Our lawsuit seeks to hold Costco accountable for misleading its customers.”
The company’s Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken is at the center of the lawsuit. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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Costco’s stock was trading around $977 in afternoon trading, down about 0.5%. Shares are up more than 13% year to date.
