Costco’s June 4 motion to dismiss the costco rotisserie chicken lawsuit puts the $4.99 bird and its labeling under direct legal attack. The company wants the court to throw out the proposed class action with prejudice, a move that would block the plaintiffs from filing the same case again.
The dispute centers on Costco’s Kirkland Signature seasoned rotisserie chicken, which the lawsuit says contains sodium phosphate and carrageenan even though packaging and signage said “No Preservatives.” Costco says those ingredients support moisture retention, texture and product consistency during cooking, and its lawyers wrote, “This theory is fatally flawed.”
June 4 Filing in California
The motion came after two women from California filed the case in January in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Costco’s lawyers argued the ingredients are listed on the label, do not function as preservatives in the chicken, and run into the regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They also challenged the claim that the women would have paid less elsewhere if they had known what the chicken contained.
“Plaintiffs' own sources contradict [the allegation], the regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration discredit it, and the product label dispels it,” Costco’s lawyers wrote. They also said, “This admission is fatal: there is no price premium, and there never was one.”
Signage Removed After Filing
After the lawsuit was filed, Costco removed its no preservatives references to maintain consistency among its labelling and signs. Wesley M. Griffith, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an online statement, “It’s confirmation of our core legal theory — the 'no preservative' claims were false,”
The removal sharpened the fight over what shoppers saw at the point of sale. Costco says the product label already spelled out the seasoning ingredients, while the plaintiffs say the No Preservatives label was misleading, unlawful and unfair.
Costco’s $4.99 Chicken Price
The price stayed at $4.99, and Costco’s lawyers said the rotisserie chicken has remained at that level in the United States since 2009. The company sold 154.7 million birds worldwide in 2025, about 300 a minute, making the chicken one of Costco’s signature items and a large-scale test of how the chain describes a high-volume staple.
For shoppers, the practical issue is simple: Costco has now asked the court to end the case at the pleading stage and bar a refiled version. If the judge grants dismissal with prejudice, the current lawsuit ends there unless the plaintiffs change course on a different legal theory.
