The company that owns Poland Spring wants to drain the life out of New York’s impending 5-cent deposit on bottled water.
Legal papers filed by Nestlé Waters North America claim the new law — which is expected to siphon $115 million in unclaimed deposits into state coffers annually — is illegal and should be tossed.
The Manhattan federal-court suit says a mandated “New York-exclusive bar code” for the 2.5 billion bottles of water sold each year “clearly violates the commerce clause of the United States Constitution.”
The suit also challenges a provision of the law that exempts bottled water containing sugar, which Nestlé Waters spokesman Brian Flaherty called a boon to competitors like Glacéau, makers of “Vitamin Water.”
“I think the biggest untold story is who was in the room when that was dreamed up,” he said.
Nestlé Waters is also targeting the planned June 1 start date for the new deposits, which a spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association called “physically impossible” to meet.
The state’s original bottle bill in 1982 allotted distributors and merchants 15 months to prepare, said Tom Lauria, whose trade group is also a plaintiff in the case.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Paterson declined comment.