“Apeel has been the victim of a deliberate smear campaign that weaponized disinformation for financial gain,” said Thomas A. Clare, one of the founding partners of Clare Locke LLP, which represents Apeel. “These falsehoods were not just defamatory. They misled consumers and caused real financial harm to Apeel, its employees and its partners.”

The lawsuit alleges that Openshaw used those claims to rally her Green Smoothie Girl Army of followers to boycott Apeel, urging them to pressure retailers such as Costco, suppliers such as Limoneira and Driscoll’s, and others to abandon Apeel-protected produce. She published the personal contact information of executives at grocery chains, encouraged phone, email, and in-store campaigns, and sold a downloadable “wallet card” listing stores that did not sell Apeel-treated produce.

In some posts, Openshaw falsely claimed Apeel used a chemical found in gasoline in its process, and in others, she said the company’s products contained “palladium, arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury.” The complaint says Openshaw’s statements misrepresented FDA filings and omitted facts showing Apeel’s commercial process has never used the solvents Openshaw described.

“Free speech does not mean freedom to defame,” said Clare. “This lawsuit is about accountability, and ensuring disinformation cannot be used to destabilize safe and needed innovation and mislead the public.”

The company also points to a blog article Openshaw published in June 2024 titled, “GreenSmoothieGirl Gets Apeel Shut Down at Billion-Dollar Produce Company,” in which she celebrated the alleged success of her campaigns.

The lawsuit follows actress Michelle Pfeiffer’s July 31 retraction of inaccurate social media claims about Apeel and its connection to Bill Gates. Pfeiffer acknowledged reposting false information and emphasized the importance of accuracy in public conversations about food safety.

Apeel said the case is part of a larger disinformation campaign that began in April 2023, when dozens of coordinated posts spread across Facebook, X and Telegram warned consumers not to “eat anything with the Apeel sticker on it.” Those posts falsely linked to a safety sheet for an unrelated industrial cleaner manufactured by a wholly different company based in the United Kingdom, presenting it as if it described Apeel’s products.

The complaint states that Openshaw amplified those narratives to her hundreds of thousands of followers, repeating them at least 60 times and intentionally mischaracterizing Apeel’s FDA submissions. Independent fact checks by Reuters, AP, USA Today and Politifact later confirmed the claims were false and that Apeel’s products are safe and FDA-approved. Despite this, Apeel said Openshaw and other influencers continued to drive the false narrative, creating consumer fear, harassment of retail partners and disruption of the company’s business.