Woman Settles For $250 After Suing Starbucks For Discontinuing A Product
OKEMOS, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - A Lansing-area woman who sued after Starbucks stopped making coffee for her single-serving machine has settled for $250.
Pam Montgomery of Okemos says she purchased a Tassimo coffee maker by Kraft Foods because it could make Starbucks coffee. But Starbucks ended its deal with Kraft to make "T-Discs" for the Tassimo, came up with its own machine, and continued to make pods for the popular Keurig machines.
Montgomery accused Kraft and Starbucks of tricking her and other consumers.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that she settled her lawsuit for $250 — a "modest amount," according to Kraft — after more than two years in federal court in western Michigan.
The offer also included her attorney fees, which Montgomery's lawyer, Timothy McCarthy Jr., said have reached $175,000. A judge — who declined to make this a class-action case — will determine the amount.
Montgomery's machine can make other coffee brands, but she wanted Starbucks.
McCarthy argued there was "a significant period of time" during which Kraft and Starbucks knew they would not longer be making the pods, but continued to sell to coffee maker anyway.
Grand Rapids attorney Edward Perdue, who represented Starbucks, wrote in court documents that the plaintiff does not dispute that she was able to buy the Starbucks pods when she bought her machine, and doesn't claim the defendants ever promised that Starbucks T-Discs would be sold forever. "Business arrangements end, and products are discontinued all the time all the time," Perdue said.
McCarthy defended his client's need for Starbucks coffee saying, it's "gold."
"I go to Starbucks," he added.
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