Consumer-Fraud Litigation Against Chewing Gum Maker Dismissed
A federal court in California has dismissed with prejudice the second amended complaint in a putative class action alleging that Wrigley Sales Co.’s chewing gum and candy products are misbranded because the labels state that they are “sugar free.” Gustavson v. Wrigley Sales Co., No. 12-1861 (N.D. Cal., decided January 7, 2014). The court determined that the product labels do not violate federal regulations, the plaintiff failed to adequately plead her alleged regulatory violations, and the plaintiff “is attempting to impose a labeling requirement that is ‘not identical to’ federal requirements.” Thus the court ruled that the “sugar free” component of the complaint was preempted and any further amendment of the complaint would be futile.
The court dismissed the remainder the complaint relating to the defendant’s
alleged failure to disclose that the products “are sweetened with nutritive
and non-nutritive sweeteners or to detail the percentage of the product that
nonnutritive components comprise,” because the second amended complaint
added no new factual allegations since the court previously dismissed
these allegations for failure to state a claim. The court also noted that “to the
extent Gustavson asserts claims based on statements appearing on a Wrigley
website that Gustavson does not claim to have viewed, these claims fail for
lack of standing.”
Issue 509
