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Company says products are safe, but consumers believe they should have been warned
The manufacturer of the trendy Stanley cup says its products are perfectly safe; a lead pellet used to seal the insulation is concealed and if the cup is intact, a consumer would never come in contact with lead. But plaintiffs say the company should have issued a warning, regardless.
If you’ve been anywhere near a teen or tween girl lately, you might have noticed the ubiquitous Stanley Quencher hanging from her fingers or tucked into her bag. Same goes for young women, older women, and we’re sure men, too (though it’s not as trendy for males, apparently).
Stanley beverage vessels have been around since 1913. For more than 100 years, the brand has been a steady and reliable manufacturer of insulated drinking bottles. Inventor William Stanley, Jr. created the first all-steel bottle, and he was the first to fuse vacuum insulation with strong steel into one portable bottle. Stanley bottles in all shapes and sizes have been a staple for hunters, workers, and others who value durability and quality.
But sometime in the early 2020s, a few influencers decided that the Stanley Quencher is the perfect cup for busy moms or professional women on the go. The straw spout, handle, size that fits in a car cup holder… all of it was just right, according to these women. And their followers agreed. The influencers approached Stanley and suggested that it start manufacturing tumblers in more “feminine” colors. After some pushback by the brand, executives agreed to give it a try. It was the best business decision they ever made—the Stanley Quencher became a viral sensation.
Between 2020 and 2021, sales of the tumbler increased by 275%. Sales of the Quencher were expected to top $750 million in 2023, thanks to the item appearing on holiday wish lists for young girls and women nationwide. In early 2024, a special Valentine’s Day-themed color release had customers lined up outside the doors of Target, hoping to score a coveted red or pink cup. The cups sold out nearly instantly.
But shortly after this sought-after item fell into the hands of millions of trend-friendly, well-hydrated females, stories began to circulate about the presence of lead in the insulation of the Stanley cups.
“Failure to warn” lawsuits for lead in Stanley cups
Mariana Franzetti is the plaintiff who has filed one of at least three lawsuits against Stanley for this issue. Her lawsuit claims that Pacific Market International, which is the parent company of Stanley, “engaged in a campaign of deceiving customers by failing to disclose the presence of lead in its tumbler products.”
The lawsuit also claims that the company reasonably should have known about lead in the cups but did not reveal this to the public because it didn’t want to lose sales.
Defective product lawsuits
Product liability lawsuits are for defective items put into the stream of commerce. These lawsuits are based on two causes: First, the item was dangerous to the user because of how it was designed or made. Second, the item did not include proper warnings or instructions.
Within that first category, products might have either a design defect or a manufacturing defect. A design defect exists when the product is poorly designed or inadequately tested. Usually, this means the product does not meet standards for use and might be inherently and unreasonably dangerous.
A manufacturing defect is when the product would be safe if manufactured according to the design standards and specifications—in other words, it’s not inherently flawed. But somewhere in the manufacturing process, perhaps a screw was loose or materials were not added in the correct proportions, or something along those lines happened, which made the product unsafe to the end-user.
In each of these types of lawsuits, liability exists where there is a foreseeable risk posed by the product when it was used for its intended purpose. Many states require a plaintiff to show that the risk could have been mitigated by adopting an alternative design that was economically feasible and in harmony with the product’s intended purpose.
Failure to warn is slightly different.
This is also called a marketing defect. This happens when a product is correctly designed but does not have instructions or warnings about features that could make it dangerous to a consumer.
A manufacturer has two related duties when creating instructions:
- It must warn users of hidden dangers that might be present in the product, and
- It must instruct users how to use that product safely.
Stanley’s response to lawsuits
Stanley has said that there is material in the insulation seal at the bottom of the cups that contains lead. However, this seal is covered by stainless steel, and there is no lead on any surface of the Stanley cup. Therefore, a customer would not come into contact with lead during any normal use of an undamaged cup.
The company has said the claims are “meritless.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuits against Stanley have not suffered harm, but they claim that the company was deceitful in not disclosing to consumers that there was any lead contained within the cups.
One plaintiff says that the company markets Stanley cups to people who are “active users” engaged in activities like hiking and climbing, which makes it more likely that they could drop and damage the cup, which could expose the lead seal on the bottom.
Stanley has said that the lead is only in an “industry standard pellet [used to] seal the vacuum insulation at the base [of the cup].” It says that once sealed, the area is then covered with a durable stainless steel layer and is inaccessible to the user.
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