famous influencers and the owners of Prime hydration drink, Logan Paul and Olajide William Olatunji (aka KSI), face legal difficulties because of a class action against Prime drinks. The Prime energy drinks are specially designed to dehydrate the sportspersons and athletes. However, the quality of famous and super-selling drinks is in question.
Prime Hydration drinks’ owner aims to boost energy for sportspeople by introducing almost nine flavors. While the case is in court, we saw no decreased drink sales. Let’s dive into the details about the Prime energy drink, its ingredients, the lawsuit, and the possible impacts on the beverage industry. However, the Prime lawsuit, forever chemicals presence, has shocked the customers.
What is the Prime hydration drink?
Prime Hydration is a popular energy drink launched in 2022, primarily for sportspersons. The owners of Prime drinks aim to provide the best energy drink that can boost the stamina of sportspeople in no time. Moreover, this beverage firm introduced almost nine flavors, including grapes. Furthermore, this energy drink contains a specific amount of caffeine that can help to boost immunity and reduce stress.
Inventors of Prime energy drinks
Paul and KSI are social media influencers and wrestlers, rivals in the wrestling ring. They both turned their ring rivalry into brotherhood and made a fantastic business partnership to showcase the beautiful effects of friendship and business. However, their popularity on YouTube raised their business in no time. Prime Hydration earned over $250 million in retail sales in its first year, with $45 million coming in a single month. The drink’s popularity is attributed to Paul and KSI’s massive YouTube viewership, roughly 40 million users. Its quick success has resulted in partnerships with Arsenal Football Club, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and other professional sports organizations.
Lawsuit against the Prime energy drinks
The lawsuit against Prime Hydration was filed in August 2023 by its regular consumer on a self-research basis. Elizabeth Castillo, a resident of California, filed a case against the beverage company alleging the presence of PFAS, forever chemicals, in the drink. After that, another law firm, Milberg, filed a class action in the court of the Northern District of California, claiming false and wrong advertisements and the PFAS chemicals in grape flavor.
Castillo has filed compensation worth $5 million, but Prime Hydration filed a dismissal motion in court in April 2024. However, a lawsuit against the famous drink company can also harm its reputation and sales.
What are forever chemicals, and how can they hurt?
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), forever chemicals or PFAS compounds can be found in water, air, fish, and soil across the United States and worldwide. PFAS can be found in drinking water, food, food containers, firefighting foam, home products, and personal care items such as shampoo and dental floss. There is no medication available to eliminate PFAS from the body. However, avoiding items containing PFAS is one of the most prominent strategies to prevent contamination. Forever chemicals or PFAS, can stay in the body for years and significantly affect performance. Furthermore, if you consume PFAS regularly, you can face these diseases:
- High cholesterol levels and obesity
- Hormonal problems
- Infertility
- Delay in development in kids
- High risk of cancer
- Heart attack
- Slower the immune system
Allegations behind the Prime lawsuit forever chemicals
The plaintiff, Elizabeth Castilo, alleged the company of Forever Chemicals’ presence. Moreover, a legal firm, Millberg, filed a class action against Prime Hydration for the wrong business tactics and misleading advertisements. Meanwhile, the case hearings are being heard in California district court, and different research and claims are coming to the forefront. Some of these allegations are as follows:.
Presence of PFAS
Millberg and Castillo both alleged the company for the presence of PFAS in the drinks, which is three times the EPA’s recommendation. Moreover, the plaintiffs claim the presence of forever chemicals is about 0.02 ppt (parts per trillion). However, the presence of PFAS is not suggested in sports energy drinks.
Misleading advertisements
Another claim by the plaintiffs is the misleading advertisement for drinks. As we know, Prime Hydration was recently launched in 2022, and people are now tasting a new energetic flavor in drinks. So, deep knowledge is not a concern, as the media influencers represent it as a sports energy drink. However, the drink contains a lot of caffeine, which is unsuitable for children under 18. Moreover, according to the claim, grape flavor is enriched with PFAS and PFOS.
Response of the Prime Creators on social media
The creators of Prime Hydration responded very clearly and promptly against this lawsuit. Paul responded to the lawsuit on April 24 with a TikTok video and stated:
“Firstly, anyone can sue anyone at any moment, but that does not make the lawsuit valid. That is not the situation here. PFOS, or forever chemicals, are derived from plastic. So, in this situation, they’re not referring to the actual drink, the liquid itself — Prime — but rather the bottle in which Prime is created. “This isn’t a small operation; we use the best bottle manufacturers in the United States,”
In addition to challenging the independent testing, Paul said Prime has a “big multi-million-dollar filter that filters water from the state.”
Furthermore, “Water you drink at home; water provided by the state that we filter before we make it into Prime,” replied Paul. “If this claim about PFOS and PFAs is true, what is that saying about your state water?”
Paul also mentioned the EPA’s recommendations for removing PFAS from drinking water, which included activated carbon treatment, ion exchange treatment, and reverse osmosis.
Additionally, he stated, “Well, we do two out of the three to clean the state’s water before it even becomes Prime.”
The current status of this legal dispute
Currently, this lawsuit is pending in court. The North District Court of California is hearing the petitions. Since the case has been ongoing since August 2023, the dismissal motion was filed in November 2023. The plaintiffs’ claims and allegations are recorded. Meanwhile, the defenders’ responses on social media also made the way for the final decisions. In addition, if the plaintiffs have a victory in their claim, compensation may be ordered. However, the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) is observing the case and investigating all the procedures and the profounds of Prime Hydration. That will ease the court’s final decision.
Conclusion
In the bottom lines, we realize that social media influencers significantly impact followers. They can do anything for their favorite media role models. They didn’t even bother with health and safety. As we discussed the Prime lawsuit Forever Chemicals, the public followed Paul and KSI on YouTube and purchased the energy drinks owned by their favorite social media influencers. However, the lawsuit against Prime Hydration may hurt the company’s reputation and decrease sales. Additionally, this lawsuit opened the eyes of authorities to have strict checks and balances in food and beverage companies. Moreover, transparent scrutiny is needed to prevent such cases and safeguard public health.