Hershey's Abandons Chocolate To Make Room For Lawsuit Disclaimer Text

HERSHEY, PA — Hershey's has removed the actual chocolate from its seasonal Pumpkin Reese's packages after the required legal disclaimer about the latest allergen lawsuit grew longer than the candy itself.

Company officials confirmed that printing the full court-mandated text left no space for the bar's ingredients list, net weight, or even the molded pumpkin shape. Production lines now fill the foil wrapper with tightly packed paragraphs detailing the pending class-action claims, settlement terms, and instructions for consumers who believe they were misled about "real pumpkin flavoring."

Plant supervisor Derek Mallory, 47, said the change happened overnight. "We got the updated artwork from legal on Monday and the bar just vanished. The wrapper's the product now. Kids are still buying them, but they're mostly chewing on the paper."

Shoppers at a Pennsylvania supermarket reported similar confusion. Lisa Tran, 29, a second-grade teacher, said she bought two packs for her classroom and spent twenty minutes reading the wrapper before realizing there was no chocolate inside. "I thought maybe the pumpkin part was hidden under all the fine print. My students were pretty disappointed."

The disclaimer also includes a toll-free number for filing additional claims, a QR code linking to the full 87-page complaint, and a note that continued consumption of the wrapper may constitute acceptance of arbitration terms. Hershey's marketing team has begun testing "disclaimer-only" multipacks aimed at adults who want the legal protection without the calories.

At publishing time, the company was exploring whether future seasonal shapes could be printed directly onto the legal text using edible ink, provided regulators approve the move.