San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Monday that he has filed a lawsuit against Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST), accusing the nation's largest energy drink maker of violating California law with its marketing of its highly-caffeinated energy drinks to children despite grave health dangers.
According to City Attorney Herrera, the energy drinks were being marketed by Corona, California-based Monster to children aged as young as six years despite scientific findings that such products may cause "significant morbidity in adolescents" from elevated blood pressure, brain seizures, and severe cardiac events.
The lawsuit was filed by Herrera in San Francisco Superior Court on Monday morning, just one week after Monster pre-emptively sued Herrera to halt his office's months-long probe into the marketing and sales practices of the energy drink manufacturer.
Herrera said that his office had been working with Monster in good faith to discuss voluntary changes to its youth-targeted marketing practices when the energy drink maker abruptly sued the City Attorney in federal court on April 29. Herrera has characterized Monster's litigation strategy as "forum shopping" and a bid to win the race to the courthouse.
Herrera said, "Monster Energy is unique among energy drink makers for the extent to which it targets children and youth in its marketing, despite the known risks its products pose to young people's health and safety. Consumption of highly caffeinated energy drinks by children has been widely condemned by pediatricians and scientists, and the NCAA has banned its member institutions from providing these products even to college athletes because of the grave safety risks."
Herrera noted that when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week announced its investigation into the addition of caffeine to products like Monster, it expressed particular concern about aggressive marketing to young people.
"Yet Monster Energy remains defiant. As the industry's worst-offender, Monster Energy should reform its irresponsible and illegal marketing practices before they're forced to by regulators or courts," Herrera said.
According to Herrera, Monster's marketing includes its "Monster Army" website, which uses children aged as young as six years to promote the Monster brand.
The FDA has received numerous adverse event reports allegedly related to consumption of Monster Energy drinks, including five deaths and multiple reported instances of illness, injury and hospitalizations.
The alleged wrongful death of a 14-year-old Maryland girl from cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity after drinking two 24-ounce servings of Monster is currently the subject of high-profile private litigation pending against the company.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA, representing more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 North American colleges and universities, currently prohibits its member institutions from distributing caffeinated energy drinks to student-athletes.
Herrera's lawsuit alleges that Monster's business and marketing practices violate California's Unfair Competition Law and Sherman Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law. If the lawsuit is successful, Monster could be enjoined from continuing illegal conduct deemed harmful to consumers and competitors, and forced to pay significant civil penalties and restitution as a result of its unfair business practices.
In late March, findings from a study that were presented at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans suggested that energy drinks may boost blood pressure and lead to erratic heartbeat.
Monster Beverage attracted scrutiny in 2012 after reports emerged that about five people may have died since 2009 after consuming its energy drinks. The FDA stated that adverse event reports about a product do not mean that the reported event is caused by the product. The FDA also made it clear that it has not established any causal link between Monster Energy drinks and the reports it received.
MNST closed Monday's trading at $56.18, down $1.26 or 2.19 percent on a volume of 1.93 million shares.
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