Mo. court rejects class-action status in Diet Coke lawsuit

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court rejected class-action certification Tuesday for a lawsuit claiming Coca-Cola has misled consumers about the sweeteners used in some Diet Coke products.

The lawsuit contends that many consumers would not have bought the fountain version of Diet Coke if they had known it contained the sweetener saccharin, which some people fear can cause health problems.

A Jackson County judge had approved the lawsuit as a class action in February 2006. But the state's highest court prohibited that in a unanimous decision Tuesday.

The Supreme Court said the classification was overly broad, because it could have covered an indefinite number of people, many of whom did not really care how their Diet Coke was sweetened. Determining who was eligible to claim they were harmed would have been a huge managerial task, the court said.

"Consumers would have to not only recall the amount of fountain Diet Coke they purchased out of the innumerable fountain beverages they purchased during the past five years, but also that they would have not purchased fountain Diet Coke if they had known it contained saccharin," Judge William Ray Price Jr. wrote for the court.

Saccharin, the oldest of the common artificial sweeteners, was dropped from a federal list of cancer-causing chemicals in 2000. But some people still are reluctant to use it.

In the lawsuit, "the issue was not whether it caused injuries, but whether people have the right to know what chemicals they're putting in their bodies," said Ralph Phalen, a Kansas City attorney who filed the lawsuit. "We wanted people to know that fountain Diet Coke was different than canned and bottled Diet Coke."

Whereas the fountain Diet Coke contains both saccharin and the sweetener aspartame, the bottled version has exclusively uses aspartame since 1984. Coca-Cola said it has continued to use saccharin in the fountain version because it retains its sweetness better than aspartame when stored over long periods of time.

Similar class-action claims against Diet Coke already have been denied in California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Massachusetts, said Ray Crockett, a spokesman for The Coca-Cola Co., based in Atlanta.

"It has been our view all along that this case and other similar cases have no merit," Crockett said. "Saccharin has been found to be safe, just as have the other sweeteners we use in our products."

Court documents filed by the plaintiff's attorney claimed a 1999 market research study conducted by Coca-Cola concluded the company could lose as much as 13 percent in sales and millions of dollars if the public was made aware that the fountain version of Diet Coke contains saccharin.

Crockett said Tuesday that he was unaware of that market study.

Court documents filed by Coca-Cola said it is not required by federal law to disclose the ingredients in fountain Diet Coke at the point where consumers purchase it, because it is not sold in a prepackaged format such as a bottle or a can. Nonetheless, Coca-Cola contended, some retailers do post the ingredients of fountain drinks in public areas of their stores in brochures made available to customers.

Phalen said he didn't know whether his client, Diana Pennington, would continue with the lawsuit now that class certification has been denied. In most such cases, Phalen said, it would not be financially feasible to continue.

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Case is State ex rel. The Coca-Cola Co. v. Honorable W. Stephen Nixon.

On the Net:

Missouri Judiciary: http://www.courts.mo.gov