California District Court Dismisses Lawsuit Alleging 'Fake' Honey Import Conspiracy

A U.S. district court in California dismissed a case brought by commercial beekeeping farms that alleged that a group of importers engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. honey market by flooding it with "fake honey." Judge Troy Nunley of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California said the plaintiffs, led by Henry's Bullfrog Bees, did not make specific enough claims as to allow the defendants a chance to mount a defense (Henry's Bullfrog Bees v. Sunland Trading, E.D. Cal. #21-00582).

The beekeepers, which also included Golden Prairie Honey Farms Corporation, doing business as Valor Honey, and Kelvin Adee, an individual, alleged that honey importers Sunland Trading, Lamex Foods, Odem International, Barkman Honey, Dutch Gold Honey and True Source Honey, engaged in a scheme to import fake honey, then sell it off as "genuine" honey, thereby suppressing prices in the domestic market, "making it difficult or impossible for domestic commercial beekeeping farms like Plaintiffs to compete."

Nunley found the plaintiffs' claims to be filled with "broad generalizations," such as the claim that True Source is aware that its Certification and Participation program is used by the defendants to "misrepresent the authenticity of their fake honey." These claims "fail to allege with any particularity the 'who, what, when, where, and how' Defendants' engaged in misconduct," the judge said. The judge gave the plaintiffs 30 days to file an amended complaint to fix the issues.