Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins are rolling into stores this fall with a new line of small print on the wrapper: “Carving not on actual product.” The disclaimer sits directly beneath an image of the pumpkin-shaped candy showing a carved mouth and eyes, a visual that sparked a yearslong legal fight after some buyers said their candies came out blank.
A New Label Replaces an Old One
As of October 6, the disclaimer appears on packaging nationwide, according to USA Today. It replaces older wording that simply read “Decorating Suggestion” on Reese's holiday candies. The swap comes after a Florida judge handed Hershey a second legal win in a case over the very same carved imagery.
The lawsuit traces back to 2023, when Florida resident Nathan Vidal bought three bags of Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins believing, based on the packaging, that the candy would feature a carved mouth and eyes. Instead, he found the pumpkins were blank once he opened the bags, and he has said he would not have purchased the chocolates had he known they did not match what was pictured, per the same account from USA Today.
The Case Against Hershey
Vidal joined fellow Florida residents Debra Kennick, Abdjul Martin and Eduardo Granados in filing suit against Hershey in May 2024, alleging deceptive marketing. Their complaint did not stop at pumpkins — the plaintiffs also raised concerns about Reese's peanut butter ghosts, bats, footballs, and winter shapes like snowmen, stockings and bells. According to NPR, the chocolate candies named in the lawsuit included Reese's Medal, Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkin, Reese's White Ghost, Reese's Peanut Butter Bats and Reese's Peanut Butter FootBalls.
The group sought $5 million from Hershey, an amount they said represented sales of Reese's Peanut Butter products in Florida since 2021. Hershey pushed back, arguing that reasonable consumers would understand the images on the packaging as suggestions and that customers still received candy that was not defective or inedible, the station's report notes.
Dismissed Twice, Appeal Still Possible
Florida District Judge Melissa Damian first dismissed the case in September 2025, then dismissed it a second time on September 16, 2026. In her ruling, the judge found that the plaintiffs' only alleged injury was their own subjective disappointment, the article states. The case is listed in federal court records as Vidal et al. v. The Hershey Company, case number 24-60831 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Attorney James Kelly, who represents the plaintiffs, said the team is disappointed in the ruling and is discussing a potential appeal. Florida consumers, he has argued, deserve to get what they pay for. Hershey has separately maintained that its earlier decorating-suggestion wording was sufficient, even as the company now uses more explicit language on its wrappers.
Carved Candy Stays Popular Despite the Fight
Hershey has said it made no changes to the physical shapes of Reese's Halloween products when they returned to store shelves this season, telling CBS News that the company has not made any changes to the Reese's shapes themselves. Katie DeCapria, Hershey's Halloween senior brand manager, said the pumpkin remains the cornerstone of the company's Halloween portfolio, and the company describes Reese's pumpkins as one of its most popular Halloween items.
The packaging update lands during a record year for the holiday. Halloween spending hit $13.1 billion in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation, as cited by CBS News. The outlet also reported that roughly two-thirds of about 1,000 parents polled by Hershey said they had already bought Halloween candy over the summer, well ahead of the October rush. Separate reports have put Hershey's lineup of Halloween-themed products at 20 or more than 20 items this season, a discrepancy that remains unresolved between accounts from Investing.com and CBS News.
For now, shoppers reaching for Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins will find the candy itself unchanged but the wrapper a little more upfront about what's actually inside. As Cleveland.com confirmed, the new disclaimer now appears across Reese's Halloween-shaped packaging, spelling out plainly that the carving pictured is not on the actual product.
