Florida woman sues Hershey for $5 million, says Reese's candies don't have carved designs

Florida woman sues Hershey for $5 million, says Reese's candies don't have carved designs
Florida woman sues Hershey for $5 million, says Reese's candies don't have carved designs 00:35

HERSHEY, Pa. (CBS) -- A Florida woman is upset about the lack of designs on Reese's holiday-themed peanut butter candy - and now she's taking parent company Hershey to court over it.

Cynthia Kelly filed a $5 million federal class-action lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, alleging several Reese's products don't match their photos as depicted on the wrappers.

For example, Reese's peanut butter pumpkins are merely pumpkin-shaped hunks of peanut-butter-stuffed chocolate, and the actual product has no Jack O'lantern-style carvings as the wrapper depicts, Kelly alleges.

She says the same is true for the peanut butter footballs and bats, as well as the white chocolate ghosts.

The suit says Kelly bought a bag of peanut butter pumpkins for $4.49 at an Aldi in Hillsborough County, Florida in late October 2023.

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A side-by-side comparison of a Reese's pumpkin peanut butter candy and the wrapper it came in. U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Kelly "believed that the product contained a cute-looking carving of a pumpkin's mouth and eyes as pictured on the product packaging," according to the suit.

Another photo in the suit shows a candy football with no carved lines for football stitching. 

"Looks like eggs," words on the picture say.

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U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

"Plaintiff and the members of the Class have been aggrieved by Defendant's unfair and deceptive practices," the suit reads. "They purchased the Products with the reasonable expectation that the Products would look similar to the pictures displayed on the Products' packaging."

CBS News Philadelphia reached out to The Hershey Company for comment, who said they cannot comment on pending legal cases.

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