The popular spice brand, McCormick & Co. is sued by the Watkins Inc., a smaller brand from the spice business. The Watkins had contacted with a federal judge, and stated that McCormic had reduced the spice amount in their packets, but kept their size the same.
As it is stated, the old tins of McCormick used to contained 8 ounces, and now, they are about 6 ounces. As the interior of the spice brand was reduced, the size of the tin remained the same. Watkins stated that McCormick is trying to play with the customers, with a visual trick.
Watkins revealed that their packages are has the same amount of spice, with McCormick, but they are using a trick where they make a bigger tin, with the same amount of spice in them.
Watkins stated that McCormick is trying to cheat the customers, and are creating an unfair competition in their business area.
Watkins explained that both of the brands packages are containing “6 oz.”, while using different sized tins. The term what McCormick is doing is “slack-filling,” which can be explained as making something seem as if it was bigger than is truly are.
Watkins revealed that this issue is creating a problem against the law which are protecting the customers.
Watkins informed that this unfair trade tricks had damaged their sales, as the customers are chose the larger tin, even they have the same amount, because they think that it has more spice in it.
The Chairman of Watkins, Mark Jacobs stated, “We are greatly disappointed by the verdict and find it very troubling that a large company like McCormick misled, in our view, consumers and retailers without real consequences,”
“While we did not get the verdict we hoped for, the fact that after Watkins filed the lawsuit, McCormick reduced the size of its 4-ounce tin to 3 ounces to match the reduced amount being sold speaks for itself.”
Here is a video from the lawsuit, let’s watch it!
What do you think? Let us know.
