CA man sues ‘Texas Pete’ hot sauce company for false advertising for making product in NC

A California man has brought a lawsuit against Texas Pete hot sauce maker TW Garner Food for false advertising, claiming the sauce is falsely marketed as being from Texas when it is in fact made in North Carolina.

Los Angeles resident Philip White filed the lawsuit in a US District Court on September 12. He claims the company misrepresented the product by marketing it as a Texas-style hot sauce when in fact its ingredients are sourced from states outside of Texas and made and bottled in North Carolina.

“Although Defendant brands the Products ‘Texas Pete,’ there is surprisingly nothing Texas about them,” the complaint reads.

The suit goes on to claim that TW Garner Foods’ “deceptive marketing and labeling scheme violates well-established federal and state consumer protection laws aimed at preventing this exact type of fraudulent scheme.”

It further alleges the company “has cheated its way to a market-leading position in the $3 billion-dollar hot-sauce industry at the expense of law-abiding competitors and consumers nationwide who desire authentic Texas hot sauce and reasonably, but incorrectly, believe that is what they are getting when they purchase Texas Pete.”

The Texas Pete official website explains in detail how the product originated in Texas and eventually moved to North Carolina when members of the Garner family went to college at Duke University. The sauce was named after the founder’s son, whose name was Pete. 

White’s complaint alleges, “If a consumer conducted an extremely close review of the Products’ back labels, nothing would overcome the reasonable impression given by the front label that the Products are indeed made in Texas.”

The suit seeks monetary damages and asks the company to change the name of the hot sauce.