One disgruntled Starbucks customer took her complaint all the way to court, suing the mega coffee chain for $5 million. The alleged crime? Too much ice in the store’s cold drinks.
Fortune reports that the lead plaintiff, Stacey Pincus, filed the case with the Northern District Court of Illinois on Wednesday. The class action lawsuit is filed on behalf anyone who had bought a cold drink in the last 10 years—Which means if Pincus somehow wins this thing (unlikely) and you’ve bought a latte in the last decade, you could get a payout of some kind.
The suit argues that Starbucks misleadingly advertises its drink sizes by fluid ounces, but that doesn’t reflect the actual amount of liquid you get. The actual drink amount is allegedly just over half the reported size once diluted by ice—i.e. a 24 ounce drink would actually contain about 14 ounces of coffee beverage. The rest of the space is taken up by ice. The lawsuit claims that Starbucks is intentionally robbing customers of their rightful drink amounts in order to turn higher profits.
Starbucks has responded to the allegations with little remorse. “Our customers understand and expect that ice is an essential component of any ‘iced’ beverage,” a spokesperson said, according to Fortune. “If a customer is not satisfied with their beverage preparation, we will gladly remake it.”