Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Reynolds' 'Made in USA' Claims on Aluminum Foil

Zulaika Mayfield of San Francisco filed a class-action lawsuit against aluminum foil maker Reynolds Consumer Products accusing the company of falsely claiming its goods are "Made in U.S.A." Filing suit at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Mayfield said Reynolds' false representations violate California's Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act (Zulaika Mayfield v. Reynolds Consumer Products, N.D. Cal. # 3:23-04587).

The complaint also alleged that Reynolds gained "unjust enrichment" from the class by way of its "deceptive, fraudulent, and misleading labeling, advertising, marketing, and sales of the Products." As a purchaser of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil, Mayfield argued that it would cut against "equity and good conscience to permit" Reynolds to keep its "ill-gotten benefits" since the products were not what the aluminum foil maker "purported them to be."

The lawsuit said that the raw material for aluminum in the aluminum foil is bauxite, adding that in the process of making the foil, bauxite is processed into alumina, which is then turned into aluminum via aluminum ingots. The ingots are then rolled into the foil. Mayfield said that none of the bauxite mined in the U.S. is used in aluminum, and that it has been this way since 1981. Bauxite is mainly sourced from Australia, Guinea, India, Brazil, Jamaica and Vietnam.

The "Made in U.S.A." label on the aluminum foil leads consumers to believe that "all raw materials used in the foil Product are sourced from within the United States," the complaint said. Mayfield cited the Federal Trade Commission's standards for claiming a good is made in the U.S., which say that a good can make such a claim when its final assembly occurs in the U.S., all "significant processing" that goes into the good happens in the U.S. and that "all or virtually all ingredients" of the product are made and sourced in the U.S.