Probiotic Yogurt Drink Suit Dismissed at Plaintiff’s Request

A California federal court has dismissed a lawsuit against Yakult USA at
the request of the plaintiff following two denials of class certification and
standing for an injunction. Torrent v. Yakult USA Inc., No. 15-0124 (C.D.
Cal., S. Div., order entered August 23, 2016). Yakult argued that the court
should refuse to grant the dismissal because the plaintiff was seeking to
ensure appellate jurisdiction, but the court rejected that logic. “It would
be inappropriate for this Court to refuse Plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal
with prejudice to attempt to force Plaintiff’s continued litigation of these
claims and preclude [appellate] review,” the court found.

The plaintiff previously attempted to obtain standing for an injunction
by purchasing Yakult again after the court told him he would be unlikely
to purchase the product in the future because he believed the healthful
claims of the product to be untrue. Details about the denials of certification
and standing for injunctive relief appear in Issues 589 and 597 of
this Update.

Issue 615