Court squashes Reese’s faceless pumpkin lawsuit

With Halloween coming up, there’s no need to worry that you won’t get any pumpkin-shaped chocolate and peanut butter candy in your trick-or-treat basket. A federal judge has ruled that disappointment over a faceless Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin isn’t enough to sustain a lawsuit against Hershey.

U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit Wednesday brought by two Florida men who claimed Hershey misled consumers by depicting its seasonal Reese’s candies with detailed designs that weren’t actually present on the chocolate.

The lawsuit focused primarily on Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins, whose packaging depicts the seasonal candy with a carved jack-o’-lantern face. The actual candy, plaintiffs Nathan Vidal and Eduardo Granados complained, arrived without the promised eyes and mouth.

The men argued that they purchased the candy specifically for the decorative designs and paid a premium for products they would not otherwise have bought.

Damian wasn’t convinced that amounted to an economic injury.

The plaintiffs received “edible Reese’s Peanut Butter products of the type and quantity advertised,” the judge wrote, finding that their complaint amounted to “subjective disappointment” rather than a concrete financial loss.

Their attempt to show they paid a price premium also fell short. The men purchased their Reese’s at Publix but used prices from Walmart, Target and Hershey’s online store to support their claim, according to Reuters.

Hershey argued that the plaintiffs “got what they bargained for — delicious candy.”

There was also another complication for consumers expecting professionally carved chocolate: Packaging included in the court’s opinion labels the jack-o’-lantern image a “DECORATING SUGGESTION.”

The litigation began in 2024 and has already survived one previous dismissal. Damian dismissed an earlier version of the complaint in September 2025 but allowed the plaintiffs to amend their claims.

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Hershey has faced similar litigation over other seasonal Reese’s candies, including ghost-shaped chocolates without depicted facial features and football-shaped candies that lacked the laces shown on their packaging.

For anyone disappointed that the courts have apparently closed the book on whether a Reese’s pumpkin needs a face, the dispute may not be over yet.

An attorney for the plaintiffs told Reuters they plan to appeal.