Plaintiffs Awarded $2.3 Million for Bigelow Made in USA Claim Steeped in Deception

Last week, a California jury awarded more than $2.3 million in damages to plaintiffs who years ago spilled the tea on a Bigelow Made in USA labeling claim.

Despite the packaging of various Bigelow teas stating that the products were “Manufactured in the USA 100%,” the tea leaves that the company uses to make its teas are grown and processed abroad, a lawsuit filed in federal court in California in 2020 alleged.

In 2024, the court found that the labeling claim was “literally false.” Bigelow had argued that the statement was true because it referred to its tea bags, not the loose tea that the company imports before blending and packaging domestically. The court disagreed. (The FTC would also likely find the company’s position problematic, as it requires products marketed as Made in USA to be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S.)

The 2020 lawsuit claimed at the time that there was only one tea plantation in the United States – owned by Bigelow. But the complaint alleged the company doesn’t grow or process any of its Bigelow brand tea there.

In response to a request for comment, Bigelow CEO and President Cindi Bigelow said in an emailed statement that the labeling claim at issue was removed from product packaging “several years ago,” adding:

When it was originally included, our goal was to express pride in blending and packaging all of our tea bags at our three manufacturing facilities in the United States. It was never our intention to imply that the tea leaves themselves were grown in the U.S. We’ve always been proud to source high-quality ingredients from around the world, and we highlight many of those sourcing stories on the tops of our boxes.

TINA.org did not find any Bigelow tea boxes displaying the “Manufactured in the USA 100%” claim during a trip to the grocery store last week. We did find Bigelow boxes stating that the tea is “Blended & Packaged in the USA 100%.”

TINA.org efforts in the Made in USA space

Over the years, TINA.org has investigated and taken action against a number of companies making deceptive Made in USA claims, including Williams-Sonoma, New Balance, Walmart, Gillette, Almay and, most recently, Jeep, Dodge and Ram.

Find more of our coverage on Made in USA.