Our weekly roundup aims to keep our readers up to date on recent notable rulings in the food & consumer packaged goods space.

  • Veronica Eshelby v. L’Oréal USA, Inc., No. 22-cv-01396-AT (S.D.N.Y. – March 27, 2023): The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed with prejudice a putative class action alleging that beauty care products displaying the word “Paris” and French text on their front labels prompted consumers into believing they were made in France. The court held that the plaintiff’s claim failed, reasoning that the mere reference to “Paris” or the use of foreign words is insufficient to deceive a reasonable consumer about where a product was made. Additionally, the court noted that “Paris” is part of the company’s brand name and is the location where the company originated. Order linked here.
  • Jessica Bizco v. Ferrara Candy Company, No. 22-cv-01967 (N.D. Ill. – March 20, 2023): The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a putative class action alleging the defendant falsely labeled its caramel candy products so that consumers would believe the statements such as “Rich and Creamy” or “Made with Real Milk” meant that the products’ fat content came exclusively from milk fats. The court held that the plaintiff’s claim failed, finding that a reasonable consumer would not be misled by the challenged labeling statements because a consumer need only read the ingredients label on the back of the package to see that the fat content in the product was not exclusively from milk ingredients but also from vegetable oils. The court determined that a reasonable consumer would not be misled when the product actually contained milk ingredients. Order linked here.
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Photo of David T. Biderman David T. Biderman

David Biderman, a partner in Perkins Coie’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, focuses his practice on mass tort litigation and consumer class actions. He heads the firm’s Mass Tort and Consumer Litigation group. He has represented a wide variety of companies in…

David Biderman, a partner in Perkins Coie’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, focuses his practice on mass tort litigation and consumer class actions. He heads the firm’s Mass Tort and Consumer Litigation group. He has represented a wide variety of companies in state and federal courts in California for 30 years.

On consumer class actions, David represents packaged food companies, coffee companies, dairy companies, footwear companies and others whose nutritional or health claims have been challenged. He also has represented search engines and other online companies. He has a record of favorable results for clients. He successfully tried a major consumer fraud class action on behalf of one of the world’s major search engines in a case involving online gambling advertisements. For that same client, he negotiated a favorable settlement of a class action challenging its online advertising pricing. He represented a major coffee retailer in defeating a class action on standing grounds. He also has litigated pre-emption defenses arising out of food labeling and obtained a dismissal for a client whose nutritional statements were challenged.

For fifteen years, David managed the firm’s full-service product liability team responsible for defending over 1,000 toxic tort cases pending in Los Angeles and Northern California state courts. These cases entailed ongoing trial activity at various levels for several trials set each month. The highly experienced and well-coordinated team has handled thousands of asbestos toxic tort cases for a variety of clients, including FORTUNE 500 companies from such industries as consumer products, aerospace manufacturing, household goods, dry cleaning and industries that generate electromagnetic fields, such as electric utilities and operators of wireless communications systems.

Photo of Tommy Tobin Tommy Tobin

Thomas Tobin’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and class action matters involving statutory, constitutional, and regulatory issues in a range of industries, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and cannabis. In the food and beverage sector, Tommy has experience defending false…

Thomas Tobin’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and class action matters involving statutory, constitutional, and regulatory issues in a range of industries, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and cannabis. In the food and beverage sector, Tommy has experience defending false advertising claims and consumer protection claims for well-known international corporations.