Old Lyme Gourmet Settles $4M Class Action Lawsuit

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The Old Lyme Gourmet Company agreed to settle a $4 million lawsuit over claims that it falsely advertised its Deep River snacks to be non-GMO products
• Customers with proof of purchase can claim $5 for the first product, and 50 cents for every additional purchase, without any limit
• Consumers without any proof of purchase can only claim up to $10 for 10 units

A person holding a bowl of potato chips. Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels

Customers of Old Lyme Gourmet are eligible to receive cash compensation after the company agreed to settle a $4-million class action lawsuit over allegations that it advertised a chips brand as non-GMO when it actually contained the denied ingredients.

The lawsuit, which was filed in New York in 2020, accused Old Lyme of falsely advertising Deep River snacks as free from GMO or genetically modified organisms.

The suit claimed that the company intentionally mimicked the seal of the Non-GMO Project, an independent organization that verifies food products are not derived from GMO crops and that milk and meat are not from animals fed GMO crops, and tricked customers into believing that their snacks are free from the said ingredients.

The “defendants avoid the Non-GMO Project’s feed standard by using their own self-created non-GMO ingredients seal, thereby creating confusion and deceiving consumers,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.

“Defendants’ own ‘standard’ allows for the use of GMO feed for dairy animals. The Non-GMO Project’s independent standard does not,” they added.

Old Lyme did not admit to any wrongdoing but agreed to settle the amount to resolve the lawsuit.

Settlement terms

Under the settlement terms, eligible class members with purchases of Deep River snacks with “non-GMO” graphics between February 2, 2017, and December 6, 202,4 can receive $5 for the first product they purchased and $0.50 each for additional purchased products.

Consumers with proofs of purchase can claim as many products as they can without any limit, while those without proof can only receive a maximum payment of $10 for up to 10 units.

The final approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for May 15, 2025, while the deadline to file a claim is July 28, 2025.

In addition to the reimbursement fund, the company also agreed to stop using the “non-GMO ingredients” label on its products.

Headquartered in Deep River, Old Lyme Gourmet Company does business as Deep River Snacks. The company is a subsidiary of Mexico-based multinational firm Arca Continental.