California-based company files lawsuit against wellness influencer Robyn Openshaw, alleging she conducted years-long disinformation campaign against company’s plant-based produce coatings
California-based company Apeel Sciences, which develops plant-based, edible coatings to extend the shelf-life of fresh produce, has revealed it filed a lawsuit on 29 August against wellness influencer Robyn Openshaw and her company, which runs the wellness advice website Green Smoothie Girl.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Apeel accuses Openshaw of waging a “years’ long disinformation campaign intended to harm Apeel’s business and reputation”.
It also asserts claims for false advertising under the Lanham Act; defamation; trade libel; disparagement of perishable agricultural products; tortious interference with business relationships; and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
According to Apeel, Openshaw began posting false claims about its products in July 2023. Between then and May 2025, it is claimed, she published multiple posts on various online media channels, in which she stated that Apeel’s plant-based coating is “toxic” and that Apeel’s products are “made with solvents and heavy metals”.
One more recent post, which was updated in September 2024 and is entitled Why the Apeel Coating Is Toxic and Doesn’t Even Work, makes those precise claims.
Other posts argued that the company’s products contained “palladium, arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury”, but Apeel’s position is that this misrepresented FDA filings, and that it never used the solvents Openshaw described.
A further contention included in the lawsuit is that she used those claims to encourage her followers to boycott Apeel, urging them to pressure retailers including Costco, as well as suppliers like Limoneira and Driscoll’s, to avoid buying Apeel-protected produce.
According to Apeel, she also published the personal contact information of retail chain executives, and encouraged readers to contact them.
‘Smear campaign’
“Apeel has been the victim of a deliberate smear campaign that weaponised disinformation for financial gain,” said Thomas Clare of Clare Locke LLP, which represents the group. “These falsehoods were not just defamatory. They misled consumers and caused real financial harm to Apeel, its employees and its partners.”
Clare added: “Free speech does not mean freedom to defame. This lawsuit is about accountability, and ensuring disinformation cannot be used to destabilise safe and needed innovation and mislead the public.”
In late July, the actress Michelle Pfeiffer retracted claims she made on social media about Apeel and a purported connection with Bill Gates.
She wrote on Instagram: “Ugh! For any of you who reposted or shared my story about Apeel it turns out that I unintentionally reposted inaccurate and outdated information, and I’m very sorry for that.”
According to Apeel, the Green Smoothie Girl case is part of a wider campaign aimed at spreading misinformation.
