No, Starbucks isn't cheating customers by adding ice to drinks, judge says
It seems that Starbucks (SBUX) can put as much ice as it wants in your beverage.A judge in California dismissed a case that accused the coffee chain of under-filling its iced drinks, saying the plaintiff had "not alleged any viable claims" against the company."If children have figured out that including ice in a cold beverage decreases the amount of liquid they will receive, the Court has no difficulty concluding that a reasonable consumer would not be deceived into thinking that when they order an iced tea, that the drink they receive will include both ice and tea and that for a given size cup, some portion of the drink will be ice rather than whatever liquid beverage the consumer ordered," wrote Percy Anderson, the U.S. District Judge presiding over the case in his dismissal of the lawsuit last Friday.
In addition, Anderson noted that the company's signage just lists the size of the cups in ounces, but does not say how much liquid will be in the cup."The cups Starbucks uses for its cold drinks... are clear, and therefore make it easy to see that the drink consists of a combination of liquid and ice," Anderson wrote.A Starbucks spokeswoman told CNBC, "We are pleased with the court's decision and the judge's comments on the matter."
This isn't the only ice-related lawsuit that Starbucks is facing. A woman in Illinois also accused the company of over-icing its cold beverages. That case has yet to be settled.In both ice cases, Starbucks responded by saying that consumers who are not satisfied with how their drink was prepared can ask for it to be remade.
Another class-action lawsuit was filed against the coffee chain in March, which stated that Starbucks had been under-filling its hot lattes.