If you’ve ever bought the Clif Bars, a popular energy bars for fitness and outdoor fans, you could be part of a gigantic and multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against the brand for alleged misleading advertising.
The amount of money a plaintiff in this class action can receive depends on how many bars you bought, when you bought them, and what condition you made the purchase in. Read on to find out how to claim your payment if you are one of those affected.
What Are Clif Bars?
The Clif Bars are a popular brand of energy bars designed, according to their own advertising (quite questionable now) to provide a fast and nutritious source of energy.
They are popular among athletes, hikers, and people with a fairly active lifestyle, but they are also consumed by people who want to have a healthy lifestyle and who are looking for some “healthy” snack.
They claim to have natural and balanced ingredients, and offers a wide range of flavors such as chocolate, red fruits and other exotic variants.
The Lawsuit Against Clif Bars for Alleged Misleading Advertising
The Clif Bars brand is the target of this class action lawsuit by buyers of the energy bars that were promoted with alleged nutritional benefits: what the company would have omitted in its advertising is the very high amount of sugar contained in the products.
The complaint was filed in April 2018 and contains 79 pages with evidence and allegations that customers had been intentionally deceived, especially regarding the children’s version of the snack.
“Clif markets these so-called ‘nutrition’ bars with labeling and packaging claims that convey a health and wellness message with the goal of increasing the price and sales of its high-sugar ‘nutrition bars,’” part of the lawsuit read. While a 12 million dollar settlement was reached in August 2024, the company maintains that they did nothing wrong, pointing out that just because a snack has sugar, it’s not necessarily unhealthy.
Clif Bars’ Class Action Settlement Only Includes Certain Products
Not everyone who bought Clif Bars, and felt misled by the misleading advertising, can be included as a plaintiff. The bars that are included are: original Clif Bars with “Nutrition for Sustained Energy” or those Clif Kid Z Bars with “No high fructose corn syrup”.
As we said before, the possibility of claiming a payment depends on where the purchase was made: only those who bought in New York and California, and who did so between April 19, 2023 and March 31, 2023, can receive financial compensation.
Those people who bought outside those two states are not automatically excluded from the settlement, really: anyone who bought these bars in another state between March 31, 2019 and March 31, 2023 will also be eligible to file a claim.
What to Do to Claim the Money if You Were Affected by Clif Bars?
If you bought the Clif Bars included in the deal, here’s what to do. To file a claim, you can head to the website dedicated to the class action. There you have two options: complete the online form or print it and send it by mail to the indicated address.
It is important that you submit your claim before November 25, 2024 in order for it to be taken into account. The payments will be processed once the courts give final approval, which is expected to happen in early November.
The amount of your payment will depend on how many bars you have purchased:
- The maximum a person can receive is $50
- If you bought 30 bars, you will receive $5
- if you bought between 31 and 60, you will get $10
- and if you bought 60 sets, you will get $15
- For larger purchases, you will receive 25 cents per additional bar, capped at $50.