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Exclusive Interview with the Lawyer for the family of Anais Fournier
May 28, 2013, 04:30:00PM. By Jane Mundy
Riverside, CA: Kevin Goldberg with Goldberg, Finnegan & Mester is one of the Monster Drink plaintiff attorneys representing the family of Anais Fournier, the 14-year-old girl who drank two bottles of Monster Energy drinks and went into cardiac arrest. She died six days later. Her parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Monster Beverage.
The goal of Monster Energy Drink plaintiff attorneys Goldberg and Alex Wheeler is to prove in the lawsuit that Anais Fournier’s consumption of Monster Energy Drink was the cause of her death, and that the energy drinks she consumed were dangerous, and that Monster’s marketing improperly targeted Anais. The lawyers also hope that this litigation will force energy drink companies to put a stronger warning label on their product, and stop targeting their marketing to teenagers.
LawyersandSettlements (LAS): The FDA has known of adverse event reports that potentially link five deaths, one non-fatal heart attack and numerous hospitalizations to Monster energy drinks for a few years now. Why hasn’t it done anything, such as request that Monster add warnings to its labels?
Attorney Kevin Goldberg (KG): The FDA has done a terrible job of informing the public about the potential dangers of energy drinks. There is definitely a gray area where Energy Drink companies like Monster have attempted to avoid more stringent regulation and public disclosure of the amount of caffeine in their drinks. Energy drink companies do this by self-classifying their energy drinks as “dietary supplements,” as opposed to the product being regulated as a “food or beverage.” Rather than challenge these improper self-classifications, the FDA has allowed energy drink companies to do this.
LAS: What is the difference between a “dietary supplement” vs. beverage supplement categories?
KG: The problem is that the FDA allows energy drink companies to choose whether they will be regulated as a “dietary supplement” or as a food (food or beverage). To me it is crystal clear that Energy Drinks fall into the traditional beverage category, and should be regulated that way. As of late 2012, some energy drinks such as Red Bull and AMP self-classified as “food/beverage.” Others such as Rockstar and Monster self-classified as “dietary supplements.” In 2009, the FDA issued draft guidelines that would seem to require that energy drinks classify themselves as a food/beverage, that provide guidance to the beverage industry about how the industry was to make these determinations. Unfortunately, it seems that good lobbyists for the energy drink companies kept this draft guidance from becoming final. (More about FDA guidelines.)