On May 28, 2024, Chief Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, certified a class of consumers in an action against Barilla Foods....more
6/20/2024
/ Advertising ,
Ascertainable Class ,
Barilla ,
Class Certification ,
CLRA ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Country of Origin ,
False Advertising ,
Food Labeling ,
Food Manufacturers ,
FRCP 23 ,
Marketing ,
Misleading Impressions ,
Product Packaging ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Unfair Competition Law (UCL)
Over the past several years, federal courts have rarely allowed slack-fill class actions to survive beyond the motion to dismiss phase. Whether the plaintiffs allege that the packaging is misleading or that the slack-fill is...more
1/19/2022
/ Breach of Warranty ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Fraud ,
False Advertising ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Misleading Impressions ,
Misrepresentation ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Product Packaging ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Slack-Fill Suits
In October of this year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals analyzed the issue of federal preemption in the context of poultry product labeling. The plaintiff in Cohen v. ConAgra Brands, Inc., brought a putative class action...more
12/16/2021
/ All Natural ,
ConAgra ,
Department of Agriculture ,
False Advertising ,
Food Labeling ,
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) ,
Misleading Impressions ,
Online Advertisements ,
Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA). ,
Preemption ,
Product Labels ,
Putative Class Actions ,
State Law Claims ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
The uptick in product labeling lawsuits has been anything but vanilla in 2021. After the avalanche of lawsuits in 2019 and 2020 targeting products marketed as containing vanilla-flavoring were largely dismissed by federal...more
On Monday, Northern District of Illinois Judge Virginia M. Kendall denied three motions to dismiss a putative class action alleging that the nation’s leading turkey suppliers—including Butterball, Cargill, House of Raeford,...more
On June 8, 2020, Judge Katherine Polk Failla in the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative class action against TGI Friday’s (“Friday’s”) for alleged deceptive advertising....more
On May 20, 2020, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a proposed class action against General Mills for its alleged failure to disclose the presence of a harmful chemical in its Cheerios cereal....more
5/28/2020
/ Article III ,
Breach of Warranty ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Food Contamination ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Food Safety ,
General Mills ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Monsanto ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Standing ,
Toxic Exposure ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Unjust Enrichment
What started out as a proposed merger between two of the largest packaged seafood manufacturers spawned a lengthy criminal investigation into antitrust violations in the tuna industry by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and...more
8/2/2019
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Class Certification ,
Competition ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Price-Fixing ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Seafood
Food and Beverage Deception Cases Still Must Pass the “Are you Serious?” Test -
Becerra v. The Coca-Cola Co., No. 17-cv-05916, 2018 WL 1070823 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 27, 2018) -
The Skinny: It is not Coca-Cola’s fault if you...more