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

  • Igor Zapadinsky v. Blue Diamond Growers, No. 2:23-cv-00231-JPS (August 7, 2023): The Eastern District of Wisconsin court granted dismissal of a putative class action alleging defendant misled consumers by describing the flavor of its packaged almonds as “smokehouse” when the product used artificial liquid smoke instead of undergoing an actual smoking process in a “smokehouse.” The court held that plaintiff’s claim failed because a reasonable consumer would not be misled by the challenged labeling statements because a reasonable consumer would understand the challenged statement to convey how the product tastes, not describe a production process. Order linked here.
  • Tasheba Barnett, et al. v. The Kroger Co. et al., No. 1:22-cv-00544 (September 11, 2023): The Southern District of Ohio granted dismissal of a putative class action alleging the defendants knowingly sold organic baby teething wafers that contained heavy metals. The court held that plaintiff’s claim failed because they were unable to demonstrate that the defendants knew of any contamination with heavy metals. Further, though plaintiffs cited independent laboratory testing, they failed to produce a report or disclose sufficient details about the purported testing. Opinion 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.

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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.

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