Sweet justice was served last month when a judge ruled in favor of Hershey’s, after the chocolate conglomerate was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging JACK-O’-LANTERN FRAUD! You see, a couple of dopes extremely naive consumers in Florida purchased Reese’s (owned by Hershey’s) Halloween pumpkin-shaped peanut butter cups. This is a product Reese’s rolls out every spooky season. But apparently, the pumpkin cups were new to the plaintiffs, who purchased them believing that the Jack-o’-lantern faces depicted on the packaging would also be carved onto the candy pumpkins. They were not, and so legal proceedings ensued (lawsuit pun!). The judge sided with Hershey’s, issuing a damning judgment of the plaintiffs: “It is clear that their only injury is their subjective disappointment.” (I may or may not have had the statement embroidered on a pillow in the weeks since the ruling was made public.) It was case closed, only now we have an update: Hershey’s, not by court order but of their own volition, has added a disclaimer to Reese’s Pumpkins packaging. May it please the court… of public opinionated numbnuts.
Hershey has made a change to the packaging of one of its Halloween treats.
The company recently added a disclaimer underneath the image on its Reese’s Halloween Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Pumpkins that says “Carving not on actual product” instead of the previous message, “Decorating Suggestion,” per USA Today.
The packaging still has an image of the treat with a jack-o-lantern-esque face carved into it and now says, “Carving not on actual product” underneath, according to Hershey’s website.
The change comes after a judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the packaging was deceptive marketing, per court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
The Hershey Company has not confirmed whether its recent packaging change is related to the dismissed lawsuit.
According to the Sept. 16 order dismissing the amended complaint, the plaintiffs filed it in December 2025. The initial complaint was filed in May 2024 and dismissed in September 2025. The plaintiffs alleged that the marketing of the pumpkins was misleading, encouraging them to think the candy items would look like the image on the packaging.
They were “aggrieved” that the candy lacked what they called “cool and beautiful carved-out designs” on the packaging, per the order.
Two of the plaintiffs who bought a bag or more of the treats alleged that they would not have bought them or would have paid less had they known the chocolates were “blank,” alleging the items had a price premium.
The plaintiffs claimed that they bought the items for their “novelty/party display value of the depicted faces, not merely for generic chocolate-and-peanut butter candy,” per the order.
…The company [Hershey] said that complaint “involves no actual harm and seeks relief for nothing more than subjective feelings of disappointment due to a selective, unreasonable, and fanciful interpretation of a product’s packaging,” per the order.
The court further said that the plaintiffs did not show that the products were “valueless,” adding that the plaintiffs’ claims were based on “their subjective beliefs and expectations” regarding the candy.
The plaintiffs did not allege that the candy they purchased was defective without the carvings, the order points out, adding that the pictured candy items have a “novel pumpkin shape.”
“Not merely for generic chocolate-and-peanut butter candy…” Um, excuse you?! We’re not talking about a “generic” anything, we’re talking REESE’S! It’s the perfect candy (so long as you don’t mess with the classic recipe or disrupt the delicate chocolate-to-peanut butter ratio!), eternally locked in a dead heat competition with KitKat for the title of greatest candy ever. Hershey’s should turn around and sue these plaintiffs for libel!! Incidentally, I purchased my first bag of Reese’s Pumpkins of the season (it did not last long, I’d be ashamed if I weren’t so gluttonously sated). I did not notice the new disclaimer, but I also wasn’t looking for or in need of one. On the other chocolate-smudged hand, though, the packaging did have Peanuts characters all over it, even though Charlie Brown and Snoopy didn’t show up anywhere on the pumpkin cups themselves. Do I need to call a lawyer??!!
Photos via Walmart
I just figured the disclaimer would be something about not containing either any actual peanut butter chocolate.
Same here.
I don’t think Reese’s cups are as good as they used to be, so stopped buying them. Hersey’s has embraced crap ingredients and none of their products are as good while getting more and more and more expensive. (Aldi had a better pb cup available seasonally, but even their chocolate is beginning to get the crap ingredients, so sadness…. I doubt they will be as good this year.) Two things can be true at once. The lawsuit was frivolous, but the packaging should clearly represent the product. And. Stop charging premium prices (while refusing to pay cocoa farmers a living wage) for crap ingredients.
They are supposedly returning to their original recipe after being busted using anything but peanut butter and chocolate! I don’t like false advertising! Go VOLS!
Maybe it’s because I’m an adult and not a sugar-addled child anymore, but nowadays, I think they taste awful. The chocolate isn’t chocolatey, peanut butter part doesn’t taste like peanuts, and you never know if the peanut butter center is going to be dry and stale. Most chocolate that you buy in a standard grocery store does not taste like chocolate, with the exception of Toblerone.
For me, it’s Toblerone all the way. REAL CHOCOLATE.
Most chocolate manufactured in the US by the conglomerates is fake chocolate.
I’m taking these posts as a sign from the universe that I should go out and get me some Toblerone… I shall obey!
I thought this was going to be about Hershey’s not putting actual chocolate coating on candy, but that wasn’t a legal thing. They use oils etc instead.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/climate/reeses-chocolate-eggs-hersheys.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HVE.WQ-j.Sx-Q_zVyIStE&smid=url-share
“ Brad Reese, the grandson of the inventor of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, took to LinkedIn over the weekend to defend his family’s candy name.
He wasn’t happy about a bag of Valentine’s Day Reese’s Mini Hearts, a seasonal peanut-buttery treat covered in chocolate. Except the covering was not actual milk chocolate.”
They could certainly do a better job of creating the Reese’s holiday ‘shapes’, which are amorphous blobs. Without the packaging images, you’d probably have no clue what the blobs were meant to represent. So yummy, though, with the ideal peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio (I like peanut butter).
I have no idea what hole I’ve been under because I hadn’t heard about this lawsuit, but I have secondhand embarrassment for these people. One of the most inane money grabs I’ve ever heard of.
And if they truly were so mentally devastated by this, they need psychiatric help far more than proceeds from a lawsuit.
I bought two bags of these yesterday at Aldi to stash away for Halloween. I actually don’t love Reese’s so not to worried I’ll eat them all. The kids will grab them because of the packaging, or so I hope. What happens after that is not my concern.
Chocolate bunnies left in a huff.
American ‘chocolate’ is horrible. Sorry/not sorry.
Most Americans agree it’s bad I think. Candy like this is for children, mostly. They sell it on Halloween, for birthday parties and as “impulse buys” by the grocery store checkout. When people want a true chocolate treat, they go for Ghirardelli or something European.