Ralph Lauren Polo Women’s “Pima Cotton” Sweaters Class Action

Pima cotton is a very desirable kind of cotton, known for its long fibers. The Ralph Lauren Corporation markets certain of its Polo sweaters as being made from Pima cotton, but the complaint for this class action alleges that the fibers in the sweater are not long enough for it to be made from real Pima cotton.

Two classes have been defined for this action:

• The Texas Class is all persons in Texas who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.
• The Consumer Fraud Multi-State Class is all persons in New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Indiana, Virginia, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, Vermont, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, Delaware, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Utah who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.

At issue in this case are women’s Polo burgundy lightweight V-neck sweaters that are purportedly made from Pima cotton.

Page 2 of the complaint shows two images. The first shows the cloth tags seen into the sweaters’ necks at the back. One says “Polo. Ralph Lauren.” The other says, “Washable. Pima Cotton.” The second image shows a paper tag attached to the sweater. It says, “Fine luxurious yarns crafted from Pima Cotton fibers distinguish this signature design, knit in a fine gauge stitch for lightweight comfort and an exquisitely soft hand.”

The complaint alleges that the primary way to identify different types of cotton is fiber length, which has a bearing on the quality and cost of the cotton, “because the longer the fiber, the stronger, softer, and more durable the resulting fabric.” Pima, the complaint claims, has fibers that range in length from 1.2 inches to 1.48 inches.

“Since cotton with longer fibers [is] more expensive,” the complaint alleges, “there is great incentive to mix cotton byproducts and shorter fibers with higher[-]value longer fibers.”

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has a single-fiber test that measures fibers in products made of cotton. This test, the complaint claims, showed that, in the sweaters, “(1) 100% of the fibers were shorter than 1.20 inches (30.48 mm), the low end of the range for Pima cotton and (2) 88% of the fibers were shorter than 1.08 inches (27.432 mm).”

Even if it is assumed that the fibers were shortened by 25% in the manufacturing process, the complaint alleges, still only 62% of them could be Pima cotton. The complaint examines some of the ways that fibers may be shortened during processing, but it concludes that none of them would produce a loss of anywhere near 25% of the fiber length.

The complaint thus asserts that the test report “supports the strong inference that the cotton used in the Product is not only Pima cotton but contains a significant amount of less expensive shorter cotton fibers and cotton byproduct fibers.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, Made of Inferior Material Rather than Material Claimed