SAN DIEGO (CN) — A federal judge in San Diego allowed parts of a consumer class action to proceed against Procter & Gamble over claims that its sleeping gummies allowed customers to fall asleep naturally.
U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson primarily sided with a class of consumers who dispute the labeling on “ZzzQuil Pure Zzzs” gummies. The named plaintiff, Valerie Perkins, sued in 2025, claiming the labels were false, misleading and likely to deceive reasonable consumers, who wouldn’t expect a product with a natural label to contain synthetic ingredients.
The product label says the gummy “helps you fall asleep naturally.” Much of the plaintiffs’ disagreement revolves around how a reasonable consumer might interpret the term “naturally.”
Robinson, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote that it was plausible that a consumer could interpret the term to mean that the product does not include synthetic products.
“Accordingly, the court finds the products’ front labels are — for purposes of the pleading stage — ambiguous because reasonable consumers would necessarily require more information before they could reasonably conclude whether the Products contain ‘natural’ (instead of synthetic) melatonin,” Robinson wrote.
The gummies contain synthetic melatonin. Melatonin is a type a hormone that humans produce on their own. The majority of melatonin supplements are synthetic, or created in a lab, according to the University of California Davis Health.
Procter & Gamble argued that...
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