Ear Hustle

Red Bull Ordered To Pay $13 Million In A Settlement Due To False Advertisement

red bull

If you drank red bull in the last 12 years, and you didn’t automatically grow wings, then you’ll be entitled to a small piece of a hefty settlement the company has agreed to pay for false advertising.

But thanks to all the press the cash payouts have received, the check maybe much smaller than originally anticipated.

Energy drink Red Bull GmbH settled two class-action lawsuits this week, agreeing to pay $13million because their famous slogan ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ isn’t true.

A spokesman for the company says they are working with the court-appointing website administrator to get it up and running soon.

The spokesman added that details of how the cash would be distributed are being handled by the court-appointed administrator and information for that is available on their website.

However, as of Thursday evening, that website was still not running.

It was originally reported that anyone who bought a drink from January 1, 2002 to October 3, 2014 would be eligible to receive either a $10 cash payment of $15 in Red Bull product -regardless of whether there was a receipt for proof.

There’s now speculation that the cash payouts will be much less since an influx of people are making claims on the Austrian energy drink’s settlement website. The website crashed Wednesday night, and continues to be nonfunctional today.

In one of the lawsuits, a consumer who had been drinking the product for years wrote that they had experienced no increase in performance, concentration of reaction speed.

‘Such deceptive conduct and practices mean that [Red Bull’s] advertising and marketing is not just “puffery,” but is instead deceptive and fraudulent and is therefore actionable,’ the suit says.

‘Even though there is a lack of genuine scientific support for a claim that Red Bull branded energy drinks provide any more benefit to a consumer than a cup of coffee, the Red Bull defendants persistently and pervasively market their product as a superior source of “energy” worthy of a premium price over a cup of coffee or other sources of caffeine,’ the suit says

Red Bull has agreed to change their marketing campaign, but insists their advertising was never misleading to begin with.

‘Red Bull settled the lawsuit to avoid the cost and distraction of litigation. However, Red Bull maintains that its marketing and labeling have always been truthful and accurate, and denies any and all wrongdoing or liability,’ the company said in a statement.

Those wishing to receive a settlement payment from the company must submit a claim form before March 2, 2015.

The settlement could be approved by May with payments being sent out within 150 days of the final approval.

Source: Daily Mail 

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