Barilla pasta claim of Italian origin is false advertising, lawsuit alleges

Sinatro and Prost claim they would not have purchased the pasta if they had known it was not made in Italy, which is valued not only for creating pasta but also for having the high-protein durum wheat needed to make a quality product.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu ruled Monday that the case has enough merit to continue. “Their allegations are sufficient to establish an economic injury for purposes of constitutional standing,” Ryu wrote.

Barilla is based in Illinois but began as a shop that sold bread and pasta in Parma, Italy. The facilities in Iowa and New York use ingredients sourced from countries other than Italy, according to court filings.

The California law firm that filed the suit did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment.

A Barilla spokesperson said Friday that the claims are unfounded, pointing to wording on the packaging that says the pasta is made in the United States with ingredients from the U.S. and elsewhere. “We’re very proud of the brand’s Italian heritage, the company’s Italian know-how, and the quality of our pasta in the U.S. and globally,” according to the statement.

Many modern consumers assume they are being misled or manipulated by corporations, according to some law professors who study false advertising.

Rebecca Tushnet, a professor at Harvard Law School, said people feel duped when they pay a price premium for what they consider a special product, such as chocolate from Switzerland.

She said consumers have been steadily filing false-advertising suits against companies selling products in grocery stores because it is one of the last forums in society that is not bogged down by legal forms or contracts in which consumers sign away their rights to sue. So, Tushnet said, this pent-up frustration at being manipulated by companies is expressed in your local Aisle 5.

Tushnet said she understands that some people find these suits silly, because they hardly expect to buy something made 6,000 miles away for $2. “Some of it is a matter of common sense,” she said.

But how does one quantify common sense when millions of dollars are on the line?

Tushnet said there has been an uptick in the past five or so years of plaintiffs and defendants in false-advertising cases conducting public surveys that speak to the issues of the case.

Megan Bannigan, a partner at Debevoise and Plimpton who has tried intellectual-property cases, said surveying has come a long way and is a useful tool in false-advertising issues.

When Bannigan started 15 years ago, she said, they would set up inside a mall and try to pull 400 people into a room to ask them questions such as where they think a product is from and whether they would be surprised to find out the…