Judge OKs lawsuit over underfilled Starbucks lattes

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Two Starbucks customers who say the company short-changes customers by underfilling lattes may proceed with a lawsuit against the coffee giant, a federal judge said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said the plaintiffs, Siera Strumlauf of San Francisco and Benjamin Robles of Carlsbad, Calif., may seek damages against Starbucks for fraud and false advertising, Reuters reported.

Strumlauf and Robles allege that the company knowingly cheats customers out of what they paid for by serving lattes that are 25% too small. The plaintiffs say that Starbucks baristas are required to leave 1/4 of an inch of free space at the top of each latte, and that they heat milk in pitchers with “fill to” lines which are too low, Reuters reported.

In May, a Chicago woman filed a similar lawsuit against Starbucks over the amount of ice baristas put in iced coffee.

Starbucks spokeswoman, Jaime Riley, said the iced-coffee lawsuit was "without merit," in an email statement. Riley noted that a customer can always ask for light ice.

USA TODAY NETWORK has reached out to Starbucks for comment on the latest case.

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