A case that has been going on between Sugar Association and Johnson & Johnson, who is the parent company of the artificial sweetener was originally set to go to trial in December. It appears that the lawsuit will still be moving forward as planned after a federal court denied the request for a summary judgment. This has been a case that many people have been following as there are a lot of consumers, doctors, and researchers out there who believe that Splenda should not be on the market for a wide variety of reasons, not just the false advertising that is in question here.

The Details

This lawsuit is a long standing one between Johnson & Johnson and the Sugar Association because it is being said that the Splenda slogan, ‘Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar,” is deliberately misleading customers. The thought is that the slogan leads consumers to believe that the product actually contains sugar, but just doesn’t have the calories associated with sugar, when this is not the case. It was Johnson & Johnson that was requesting the summary judgment stating that the plaintiffs have delayed bringing suit.

It was the United States District Dale Fischer that would ultimately reject the request for a summary judgment. Fischer denied the summary judgment stating that he thought that claims against Johnson & Johnson should be heart by a jury at a trial. The Sugar Association will count this ruling as a win. In fact, Andy Briscoe who is the president and CEO of the Sugar Association said, “this ruling will give consumers a chance to hear the facts in this case. Consumers have a right to know what they really are buying and an equal right not to have a big corporation try to tell them something else.”

McNeil Nutritionals, who is the company that actually makes Splenda, has been faced with similar accusations in the past. The company, of whom Johnson & Johnson is the parent company says that its marketing slogans “are true and in no way state or imply that Splenda contains actual sugar or is natural” but apparently many don’t believe this is the case and a judge has decided that the claims have enough merit for the face to go forward and to be decided on its merits.

A Troubled History

This is not the first time that the two companies have butted heads in the recent past. In November of 2006, the Sugar Association filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, requesting that there be an investigation into the marketing of Splenda. But even that was not the first time that the two companies came together at opposite ends of an argument as McNeil Nutritionals filed a lawsuit against the Sugar Association stating that the association was employing false advertising on a website that it had established. This case was shut out quickly as a federal court judge dismissed the case stating that McNeil didn’t have a right to maintain an independent action.

The Sugar Association isn’t the only entity giving McNeil a hard time. In fact, McNeil has struggled with Merisant, who is the provider of Equal and NutraSweet, the other two big artificial sweeteners on the market. The two companies were involved in a legal battle in 2007 and they finally came to some sort of settlement, though no information was shared with the public about this settlement.

The battle between Johnson & Johnson (and by extension McNeil Nutritionals) and the Sugar Association is one that is still ongoing and may be for some time. One thing is for certain, there are a lot of people ready to weigh in on this case or at least watch it progress to see if any changes will be made to the way that Splenda can be marketed in the future.