Area pickle company sours on the Wahlbergs; says what they're doing with pickles just ain't kosher, so it sues

Grillo's Pickles, started by a man who sold pickles from a cart outside the Park Street T stop, yesterday sued Wahlburgers over the competing pickles the burger chain now sells, alleging they have lying labels because they are not preservative free and because they might be based on Grillo's 100-year-old secret family pickle recipe.

In its jarring complaint, filed in US District Court in New Jersey, Grillo's, now owned by some California food company, but based in Westwood, says the idea of preservative-laced pickles labeled as "fresh" does more than just offend its sensibilities as a purveyor of preservative-free fresh pickles. Grillo's charges the deceptive labeling affects its bread-and-butter business because the Wahlburger pickle line competes directly with it and the unlabled preservatives mean their gherkins deceive customers and retailers.

Along with its formal complaint, Grillo's supplied results from a test lab showing a jar of Wahlburgers pickles was laced with benzoic acid and sodium benzoate, preservatives not disclosed on the label. Any way you slice it, that's just wrong, Grillo's charges:

Wahlburgers pickles are sold in grocery stores nationwide and marketed as, among other things, “fresh,” “all natural,” and containing “no preservatives.” Unfortunately, none of these claims are true. Far from being “fresh,” “all natural,” and preservative free, Wahlburgers pickles contain considerable amounts of an artificial chemical preservative designed to lengthen the pickles’ shelf life. ...

Defendants’ false and misleading statements are the keys which have allowed Wahlburgers pickles to access and compete with Grillo’s in the fresh, artificial-preservative-free pickle market. ...

Absent these false and misleading statements, Wahlburgers pickles would not have been in the same fresh, artificial-preservative-free category as Grillo's pickles and would not have been purchased by consumers to whom these attributes are important. Further, absent these false and misleading statements, Wahlburgers pickles would not have been viewed by grocery stores and consumers as a substitute product for Grillo's and would not have been purchased by customers and grocery store buyers to the detriment of Grillo's sales, allotted shelf space, and market share.

The suit continues:

Upon information and belief, Defendants' clandestine addition of an artificial chemical preservative to its pickles and the effects thereof afford Wahlburgers pickles a longer shelf life than fresh pickles and allow Defendants to hold inventory longer than they otherwise would be able to hold fresh pickles. On information and belief, this artificially enhanced shelf life and ability to hold inventory longer affords Defendants a competitive advantage that is not available to companies that produce truly fresh pickles, such as Grillo's.

The suit also names the Michigan company that handles distribution for Wahlburgers retail products and a New Jersey pickle packer. The New Jersey angle is a big dill because Grillo's formerly had a contract with the company, which the suit alleges may be how Wahlburgers came up with a recipe that appears to be identical to the one that Travis Grillo says had been handed down for 100 years in his family.

Defendants' conduct is all the more culpable given that (1) Patriot had full knowledge of Grillo's recipes and (2) Defendants used this knowledge to formulate Wahlburgers pickle recipes to be nearly identical to Grillo's save for the addition of an artificial chemical preservative. Thus, although Defendants knew Wahlburgers' pickle recipe differed from Grillo's almost solely by virtue of the addition of an artificial chemical preservative, Defendants nonetheless falsely labeled their product to deceive customers into believing that, like Grillo's, Wahlburgers pickles are, inter alia, free from artificial preservatives, fresh, and all natural.

Grillo's says it has seen online comments wondering if Walhburgers pickles are, in fact, just repackaged Grillo's Pickles, which the suit assures whichever judge it is assigned to they most definitely are not.

The complaint asks a judge for an injunction that would require Wahlburgers to stop calling its wares "fresh." The company is also seeking treble and punitive damages to be determined at trial.

Complete complaint (1.1M PDF).
Lab results (111k PDF).