The claim — “100 percent natural spring water,” says Poland Spring Water on its label.

However, not so, according to a lawsuit filed against parent company Nestle Waters North America, charging that Poland Spring Water is deceiving consumers with the evergreen labels that say their bottle contains “100 percent natural spring water.”

The class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Connecticut claims that the parent company is bottling natural groundwater that doesn’t meet the federal definition of spring water.

“For more than twenty years, Nestle Waters’ marketing and sales of Poland Spring Water has been a colossal fraud perpetrated against American consumers,” alleged the lawsuit, which seeks class-action status on behalf of all those affected.

“To consumers, ‘spring water’ from a naturally occurring spring signifies purity and high quality and commands a premium price compared to Defendant’s non-spring drinking water products or filtered tap water,” added the lawsuit. To illicitly capture that premium, Defendant, since it began selling the Poland Spring brand in 1993, has bottled typical groundwater and illegally mislabeled it as ‘100% Natural Spring Water.'”

A Nestle Waters representative, however, says the water meets all relevant federal and state regulations for spring water.

Nestle Waters settled a 2003 Connecticut lawsuit claiming Poland Spring’s water was sourced outside deep in Maine woods.

The lawsuit comes as the Stamford, Connecticut-based company embarks on an expansion in Maine amid rising demand for bottled water.

Nestle is seeking state approval to source water from a public water district well in Lincoln.

Readers Bureau

Edited by Jesus Chan

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