Pete and Gerry’s Faces Two New Consumer Lawsuits

Six years after a federal lawsuit claiming deceptive marketing practices by the Monroe, N.H.-based Pete and Gerry’s Organics eggs was settled and dismissed, attorneys for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation (PETA) have filed two new consumer class-action lawsuits alleging the same in federal court, with one case seeking $5 million.

The lawsuits, which were filed Wednesday in California and New York, allege that Pete and Gerry’s has misleadingly marketed its eggs as “pasture raised” and “free range” — labels for which consumers pay premium prices — when instead chickens are crammed together in sheds, where each has 1.5 feet of floor space or less, making it nearly impossible to move.

The crux of both cases involves what PETA says was camera drone footage of two Pete and Gerry’s supplier farms, where PETA alleges up to 20,000 hens were crowded into sheds.