🥤 Prime Hydration faces $5M PFAS suit and Olympic trademark suit

Logan Paul and KSI launched Prime Hydration in 2022, and it moved fast: more than $250 million in retail sales in its first year, the Milberg law firm's complaint notes, and Bloomberg reported the brand was set to pass $1.2 billion in sales in 2023. The hype came with a paper trail. Since 2023 Prime has drawn two lawsuits - a PFAS class action and a U.S. Olympic Committee trademark suit - plus a U.S. senator's call for a federal caffeine probe. They are not at the same stage, and they do not end the same way.

The PFAS lawsuit: a billion-dollar brand fighting over 0.06 parts per trillion

In August 2023 the Milberg law firm sued Prime Hydration in the Northern District of California. The named plaintiff, California resident Elizabeth Castillo, says independent third-party testing found per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in Prime's grape flavor, and that she would not have bought the drink had the PFAS been disclosed. The suit seeks a $5 million judgment, USA Today reported from federal court records.

Paul pushed back in a TikTok video, calling the suit's testing 'absolute bull' and saying it offers 'zero evidence.' He argued the testing claims only 0.06 parts per trillion of PFAS, and that the EPA - the US environmental regulator - deems measurements below 1.1 ppt unreliable, USA Today reported. Castillo and Milberg counter, in the suit, that their testing followed accepted industry standards and that the level is three times the EPA's recommended lifetime health advisory. Prime moved to dismiss the case, arguing Castillo had not alleged a concrete injury; a judge heard that motion on April 18, 2024.

The caffeine complaint: a senator asks the FDA to step in

On July 9, 2023, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked the Food and Drug Administration - the US food-and-drug regulator - to investigate Prime Energy's caffeine levels and its marketing to children, USA Today reported. Each 12-ounce can of Prime Energy carries 200 milligrams of caffeine, roughly six cans of Coke's worth, per NBC News. Prime's representatives said the drink complies with the regulations of the countries it sells in and is labelled for ages 18 and up; Paul later said on TikTok that the FDA probe 'never happened... They never called us.'

"a cauldron of caffeine"

Sen. Chuck Schumer's letter to the FDA on Prime Energy, July 9, 2023

The Olympic trademark suit: Kevin Durant's bottle and a Colorado filing

On Friday, July 19, 2024, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee sued Prime in a Colorado federal court, a week before the Paris Olympics. The suit accuses the brand of using trademarked Olympic phrases - including 'OLYMPIC,' 'TEAM USA' and 'GOING FOR GOLD' - on a special-edition drink built around Kevin Durant, the three-time Olympic gold medalist, after a July 10 cease-and-desist letter the committee says Prime ignored. The committee is seeking the drink's profits, which it estimates in the millions. Representatives for Prime and Paul did not respond to NBC News' requests for comment, though the cited posts and the product appeared to have been pulled from Prime's pages.

Add it up and Prime has two open lawsuits, a senator's unanswered FDA request, and a founder who has never been shy about explaining the chemistry on camera. Prime's UK sales fell 48% in 2024 - the steepest drop of any food or drink brand that year, per NielsenIQ data reported by Marketing Week - but the litigation calendar does not move at the hype cycle's speed. Make of the timing what you will.