Starbucks Can’t Dodge Underfilled Latte Lawsuits

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a California suit against Starbucks that accuses the coffee mega-chain of giving customers less coffee per drink than advertised. The California case is just one of four proposed class actions against Starbucks for underfilling beverages. In this case, plaintiffs’ counsel “purchased and measured Starbucks Lattes at different stores, in different states, in different sizes, and in different flavors,” and found that “each Latte was underfilled by approximately 25%,” according to the filing. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said the premise of the suit was plausible, given that “If all Starbucks lattes are made pursuant to a standardized recipe which results in the lattes being uniformly underfilled … a reasonable consumer would be misled by Defendant’s representations.”