Groupe SEB USA and Meyer Corporation sued Caraway Home over marketing claims about non-stick cookware. The suit alleges false advertising, commercial disparagement, trade libel, and unjust enrichment. Caraway’s marketing characterizes PTFE-coated cookware as toxic, cancer-causing, and containing “forever chemicals.” The complaint cites social media posts, emails, and website statements urging consumers to discard competitors’ pans and warning that chemicals enter the body and persist for decades. The plaintiffs contend Caraway built its brand on a false premise that PTFE makes consumers sick. They cite a 2025 National Advertising Division ruling finding Caraway lacked a reasonable basis for claims that competing non-stick cookware is toxic. The complaint alleges Caraway agreed to remove some ads but many remained live and new ads appeared shortly before the lawsuit.
"Groupe SEB USA (the maker of T-Fal and All-Clad) and Meyer Corporation (Farberware, Rachael Ray, Anolon) filed suit against Caraway Home on Feb. 13 in the Southern District of New York, accusing the ceramic cookware brand of false advertising, commercial disparagement, trade libel, and unjust enrichment. The 34-page complaint takes issue with Caraway's marketing, which characterizes PTFE-coated cookware (the dominant non-stick material used by both plaintiffs) as "toxic," cancer-causing, and laced with "forever chemicals.""
"SEB and Meyer allege that Caraway, which launched in 2019, built its brand from day one on a "false premise:" that PTFE-coated cookware makes consumers sick. Among the specific advertisements cited include social media posts labeling competitors' pans as "toxic cookware" that will "fill the air in your home with harmful, toxic fumes and forever chemicals that you ingest, such as PFAS and PTFE;" emails urging consumers to "toss your toxic pans;" and a website claim about traditional non-stick pans releasing "dangerous chemicals" that "enter our body and take decades to leave, potentially causing health risks like cancer or respiratory issues.""
"The plaintiffs argue these claims are not only false but knowingly so, pointing to a 2025 ruling by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau, which concluded that Caraway "did not meet its burden of providing a reasonable basis for claims that competing non-stick cookware is toxic." Caraway agreed to comply with the NAD's recommendation to pull certain ads, but according to the complaint, many remained live and new ones appeared in January, just weeks before the suit was filed."
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