Nestle's Poland Spring Water unit has duped American consumers into paying premium prices for ordinary ground water that's pumped from some of Maine's most populated areas, rather than from natural springs as the company advertises, according to a lawsuit.
While Poland Springs says its water bottles contain "100 per cent natural spring water" from a source deep in Maine's woods, the complaint filed August 15 in federal court in Connecticut claims that Nestle Waters North America has bottled well water that doesn't meet the US Food and Drug Administration's definition of spring water. The suit, which includes claims for breach of contract and fraud, also seeks unspecified damages for violations of state laws including New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
None of Poland Spring Water's eight purported "natural spring" sites contains a genuine spring under FDA rules, according to the suit. "One or more" of the company's largest volume groundwater collection sites - which the suit says supplies up to 99 per cent of the water in Poland Spring Water products - are near a current or former refuse pit, landfill or petroleum dump site, the plaintiffs say.
Even the historic Poland Spring site in western Maine, which displays a stream of mineral water shielded behind glass, is no longer natural but instead generated by a machine that pumps it out of the ground, according to the complaint.
"To consumers, 'spring water' from a naturally occurring spring signifies purity and high quality and commands a premium price compared to defendant's non-spring drinking water products or filtered tap water," according to the proposed class-action suit filed on behalf of consumers who've bought the water. "To illicitly capture that premium, defendant, since it began selling the Poland Spring brand in 1993, has bottled common groundwater and illegally mislabeled it as '100 per cent Natural Spring Water.'"
