Various bags of “Popcorn Indiana” products are seen. A Greenwood woman sued the manufacturer of the products alleging the “Popcorn Indiana” name was misleading.
Provided by court documents
A federal judge dismissed a Greenwood woman’s lawsuit where she alleged that she and other consumers were misled to believe “Popcorn Indiana” products were made entirely in Indiana.
Greenwood resident Melinda Gibson first sued Ohio-based Eagle Family Foods Group LLC, the manufacturer of the brand, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in November. She alleged the company violated the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, the violation of consumer fraud acts in seven other states, and participated in negligent misrepresentation, fraud and unjust enrichment.
In the lawsuit, she argued that she had purchased the popcorn from the Walmart on Emerson Avenue and other locations believing that the “Popcorn Indiana” name referred to where the company was from and where it was made, “including the growing of the popcorn and popping it.”
However, “Popcorn Indiana” is not made in Indiana. Citing the product’s website, the lawsuit says that it is made at a facility in Waukegan, Illinois.
Gibson argued that consumers expected the product to be made in Indiana, citing the product’s marketing and name. Consumers are facing increased commercialization of products and seek brands that are genuine, and will pay a “price premium for what they perceive to be authentic products linked to a specific place, such as popcorn grown and popped in Indiana,” the lawsuit said.
Gibson also argued that people may think the product’s name refers to the city where the company is from and where the product is made. While there is a Popcorn, Indiana, the unincorporated community in northwestern Lawrence County is not where the product is made, according to the lawsuit.
In March, Eagle Family Foods Group filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Among their several arguments, the company said Gibson lacked standing to seek injunctive relief and assert claims under other states’ statutes and failed to adequately assert her fraud claims.
They also argued that all of Gibson’s claims should be dismissed because the product label was not misleading in their view, the filing shows.
Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt granted the request to dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice on Aug. 29. In her ruling, Pratt discussed both Gibson’s and Eagle Family Foods Groups’ arguments in detail.
Pratt agreed with the company’s claim that Gibson could not seek injunction relief because she faces “no future risk of deception” As Gibson now knows the geographic origin of the products, “‘she cannot plausibly claim that she faces any future risk of being misled on the geographic origin of the products,’” according to the ruling.
Pratt did acknowledge that although the product is made with corn grown in Indiana, “it is not made (popped) in Indiana.” Additionally, Eagle Family Foods is not an Indiana company.
“Neither the front nor back of the [p]roduct packaging states that the [p]roduct is not made in Indiana or by an Indiana company, though Eagle’s website states that the [p]roduct is manufactured in Illinois,” Pratt wrote.
Later in the ruling, Pratt said the Gibson’s complaint was “devoid of any factual allegations, general or otherwise, regarding an intent to defraud or deceive.”
As part of the ruling, Pratt also gave Gibson until Sept. 12 to file an amended complaint as long as it’s “not an exercise in futility.” If nothing is filed, Pratt says the motion to dismiss will be converted to a dismissal with prejudice, leading to a final judgment and permanently dismissing the case.
An attorney for Gibson declined to comment on the ruling.
