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The Barilla pasta brand is facing a lawsuit because two California residents are taking issue with the “Italy’s No. 1 brand of pasta” marketing.
Jessica Prost of Los Angeles and Matthew Sinatro of San Francisco are suing the company for false advertising and claiming that Barilla is misleading its customers after finding out the products are made in New York and Iowa.
Barilla products explicitly state they are made in the USA and that the company’s headquarters is in Illinois.
However, the whiny plaintiffs are saying that the Italian flag and colors on the boxes are misleading and the company inaccurately describes their products “as authentic, genuine Italian pasta—made from ingredients sources in Italy (like durum wheat), and manufactured in Italy.”
A request from Barilla to throw out the case was denied.
“As Plaintiffs note, Barilla asks the court to assume that consumers would solely perceive the Challenged Representation to mean that the products at issue are part of the Barilla brand, and not that they are made in Italy from Italian ingredients,” Judge Donna M. Ryu wrote, via TODAY. “In other words, Barilla asks the court to decide as a matter of law that the Challenged Representation can mean only one thing. However, Plaintiffs have alleged that the Challenged Representation appears with the colors of the Italian flag and that this imagery further reinforces the notion that the products ‘are authentic pastas from Italy.”
So what do the plaintiffs want?
They’re hoping for monetary compensation, while also asking Barilla to be stopped from using Italy’s likeness in the marketing of its products.
