Does Poland Spring water come from springs?
(FORTUNE Magazine) – If you’ve had a sip of Poland Spring Natural Spring Water over the past seven years, then you, like me, are a plaintiff in a class-action suit that recently settled. (Congratulations!) If you have Poland Spring delivered to your home, the company sent you a letter saying not to worry–all parties now agree that Poland Spring is natural spring water after all. The settlement is pretty standard: next to undetectable benefits for us–some discount coupons and whatnot–and $1.35 million in cash for the plaintiffs attorneys. Reassuring though it was, the letter was not, strictly speaking, accurate. The settling plaintiffs lawyer did not actually concede that Poland Spring Natural Spring Water was spring water. He agreed, rather, to stop challenging that labeling. In fact, based on the evidence presented to the judge who approved the settlement, the most anyone can confidently say about Poland Spring–the nation’s leading brand of spring water–is that geologists disagre
