A U.S. judge has allowed a class-action lawsuit against Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Gorton’s to proceed.
Filed in April 2022 by plaintiffs Jeffrey Alan Spindel and Kevin McCarthy, the lawsuit alleges Gorton’s tilapia products are falsely advertised as being sustainably sourced. Spindel and McCarthy are asking for more than USD 5 million (EUR 4.9 million) in damages.
On 24 August, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts Judge Patti B. Saris rejected Gorton’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit outright, though she sided with seafood firm in limiting the lawsuit to a dispute over whether the company’s tilapia can be advertised as sustainable.
“[I] cannot resolve this factual dispute in a motion to dismiss,” Saris wrote. “To the extent plaintiffs are casting a wider net in arguing that only tilapia raised in the wild are sustainable, they will come up empty. However, plaintiffs do assert a plausible (albeit hotly disputed) claim that Gorton’s tilapia are sourced, in part, from unsustainable Chinese fish farms with ‘environmentally destructive and inhumane’ practices.”
The plaintiffs have argued Gorton’s tilapia is sourced from farms in China that are “environmentally destructive and inhumane,” the complaint alleges.
“Gorton's tilapia are sourced at least in part from China, a country of origin which the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommends avoiding,” Richman Law and Policy, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, said in press release.
At a hearing in mid-August, Gorton’s acknowledged some of its tilapia comes from fish farms in China but contended it follows industry best practices in all its sourcing efforts. In July, the Global Seafood Alliance and New England Aquarium submitted an amicus brief to support Gorton’s motion to dismiss the suit, arguing Gorton’s uses credible third-party certifications to ensure it is following industry best practices in its seafood sourcing.
Gorton’s Vice President of Marketing Chris Hussey told SeafoodSource the company is unable to comment on active court proceedings in which it is involved.
In her ruling, Saris dismissed the plaintiffs' requests for injunctive relief because Gorton's said it has discontinued, and plans not to reinstate, its "sustainably sourced" marketing verbiage.
“Plaintiffs have failed to plausibly allege future harm when they no longer purchase the products and defendant stated at the hearing that the ‘sustainably sourced’ label is no longer used," Saris wrote.
"We are pleased that courts are finding sustainability claims in the aquaculture context to be actionable,” Richman Animal Welfare Legal Fellow Brooke Dekolf told SeafoodSource. “The next step [will] be to begin discovery into Gorton's supply chain – to identify the actual practices employed on their suppliers' farms.”
Photo courtesy of Keith Homan/Shutterstock
