Fairlife milk drinkers ‘feel betrayed’ by alleged Fair Oaks Farms cow abuse, says attorney with lawsuit seeking class-action status
Fairlife milk's claim is that it is not only a better quality product, but the cows producing it were treated with 'extraordinary care', a promise written right on the bottle’s label, according to one of the lawsuits.
ROBERT CHANNICK: ‘For more than two years, Eliana Salzhauer paid a premium price to buy Fairlife “ultrafiltered” chocolate milk every week for her family, buying into the company’s claims it was not only a better quality product, but the cows producing it were treated with “extraordinary care,” a promise written right on the bottle’s label, according to one of the lawsuits.
When an animal welfare group released the undercover video in June showing alleged abuse of calves at the dairy’s flagship farm in northwest Indiana, Salzhauer, a South Florida resident, became the lead plaintiff in one of the lawsuits against Fairlife. The Salzhauer lawsuit was initially filed in a Georgia federal court, the home state of co-defendant Coca-Cola…
Millions of consumers may have a claim against Fairlife milk over alleged cow abuse at an Indiana farm, as eight lawsuits from around the country came together in a Chicago federal courtroom Tuesday seeking class-action status… Chicago attorney Amy Keller, who represents Salzhauer in the lawsuit, said the potential class could include “millions and millions” of consumers who paid a premium for Fairlife milk.
The lawsuits are being consolidated into a single consumer fraud case against Chicago-based Fairlife, Coca-Cola and the dairy co-op that includes Fair Oaks Farms, the Indiana dairy farm where the alleged abuse was captured by an animal welfare group on video and released in June… “When companies lie to consumers, they feel betrayed by that,” Keller said Tuesday after the hearing. “So we’re holding those companies accountable for the representations they make to consumers”…
The graphic video went viral, and about a dozen Chicago-area grocers pulled Fairlife from their shelves amid consumer backlash, including Jewel-Osco, Tony’s Fresh Market and Pete’s Fresh Market. The lawsuits followed quickly, filed in federal courts around the country until October, when a judicial panel ordered the cases be heard jointly by U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr. in Chicago… The lawsuits are seeking to curb the alleged animal abuse at Fairlife’s dairy suppliers and get monetary compensation for consumers who bought the milk under the marketing premise it was ethically sourced’. SOURCE…
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