Who doesn’t like ice cream, especially when it’s low carb and low calorie? That’s what Halo Top ice cream is marketed as. However, while marketed as a guilt-free treat, a recent lawsuit claims the makers of Halo Top are “guilty of short-scooping customers.” The class-action lawsuit was filed by “two people from California” in U.S. District Court in San Diego and alleges that “Halo Top underfills its pints dramatically so at times.”
Who doesn’t like ice cream, especially when it’s low carb and low calorie? That’s what Halo Top ice cream is marketed as. However, while marketed as a guilt-free treat, a recent lawsuit claims the makers of Halo Top ice cream are “guilty of short-scooping customers.” The class-action lawsuit was filed by “two people from California” in U.S. District Court in San Diego and alleges that “Halo Top underfills its pints dramatically so at times.”
According to the lawsuit, “purchasers of the premium-priced ice cream simply have no idea how much ice cream they will get each and every time they buy a Halo Top pint…Halo Top has been doing this for years.”
For those who don’t know, Halo Top is a type of ice cream that is marketed as having “high protein, low sugar, and low-calorie ingredients.” Another selling point of Halo Top is that the “number of calories per pint is prominently displayed on the pint container, generally 280 to 360 calories per pint,” according to the lawsuit. This makes it easy for consumers counting calories or trying to live a healthier lifestyle to stay on track. It was launched in 2011 and quickly amasses a cult-like following of fans, despite the fact that a pint of the guilt-free ice cream costs about $6.99.
However, given the cost, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue the least the makers of Halo Top can do is fill the pints completely. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs, Gillian Neely of San Diego and Youssif Kamal of Los Angeles claim Halo Top “knows it is short-changing its customers, but refuses to do anything about it.” The suit adds:
“What constitutes a ‘pint’ is not up for debate. It is a standardized measurement of volume in the United States and commonly understood as such by consumers…Just as consumers expect to be paying the advertised price for a full gallon of gasoline, so too they expect to be paying the advertised price for a full pint of ice cream. But when purchasing a pint of Halo Top ice cream, consumers frequently do not get a full pint.”
Both Neely and Kamal are “consumers of Halo Top ice cream,” and despite the lawsuit, “Kamal intends to continue purchasing Halo Top ice cream pints in the future and wants to ensure every pint is a full pint.”
Eden Creamery, the Los Angeles-based company that produces Halo Top ice cream, pushed back against the lawsuit, though. According to the company, the claims detailed out in the lawsuit have no merit. It added, “We have never and would never ‘underfill’ our pints.” The company also explained in a statement to ABC News that “product settling can occur from time to time due to everything from heat fluctuations to altitude changes during shipping and handling.”
Sources:
Lawsuit charges Halo Top ice cream is cheating customers
Halo Top sued for ‘knowingly’ underfilling pints of low-calorie ice cream
Join the conversation!