McDonald’s Defeats Vanilla Ice Cream Deception Suit, for Now

McDonald’s Corp. won dismissal, for now, of a proposed class suit alleging it misleads consumers into thinking its ice cream is flavored with real vanilla, but a California federal court gave the plaintiff another chance to marshall facts to support her deception claims.

Eugenia Harris alleges McDonald’s description of its ice cream as “vanilla,” with no additional modifiers, is misleading because the products contain at most trace amounts of vanilla derived from the vanilla plant.

The deception assertion “plainly is a legal conclusion that is not deemed true even on a motion to dismiss,” Judge Richard Seeborg of the U.S. ...