According to a news source, a putative class action has been filed against companies making Tassimo® single-cup coffee brewing systems, alleging that they misled consumers by promising that Starbucks’ brewing cups would remain available for use in the coffee makers despite knowing that the company would stop selling the cups. Montgomery v. Kraft Foods Global, Inc., No. 12-149 (U.S. Dist. Ct., W.D. Mich., filed February 20, 2012).

Apparently, Kraft sued Starbucks in 2010, seeking an order to prevent Starbucks from breaking its Tassimo® contract, but the companies continued selling the coffee brewing systems into 2012. Plaintiffs’ counsel claim that the single-serve coffee brewing system market is dominated by Tassimo® and Keurig®, which use distinct throw-away brewing cups, and that those buying the Tassimo® product did so because Starbucks supplied the brewing cup used in the system.

The complaint reportedly alleges that the companies continued selling the system “with packaging and literature stating the Tassimo was the system for which Starbucks brewing cups were available, despite knowing the same was false or would imminently become false, and … , despite knowing Starbucks brewing cups would in the immediate future become exclusively available for use with the Tassimo’s competing system, the Keurig.” See PRWeb, February 20, 2012.