The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed, for the most part, with the resolution of multidistrict litigation claims against pet food manufacturers involving the melamine contamination and recall of their products in 2007. In re: Pet Food Prods. Liab. Litig., Nos. 08-4741 & 08-4779 (3d Cir., decided December 16, 2010). Further details about the settlement agreement appear in Issue 283 of this Update. The court determined that certification of a settlement class was appropriate and that most of the settlement’s terms were fair and reasonable. Because the district court agreed with the settlement’s cap of “purchase claims,” that is, “claims solely for reimbursement of the costs associated with the purchase of a Recalled Pet Food Product by a Settlement Class Member who has not been reimbursed for such costs to date,” without “the information necessary to evaluate the value and allocation of the Purchase Claims,” the appeals court vacated and…
Category Archives Issue 375
In a ruling left unchallenged when the appeal period expired, a federal court in California has determined that a plaintiff bringing state law claims about alleged misleading food labels involving trans fat were preempted by federal law and that he lacked standing as a consumer to bring a claim under the Lanham Act, which protects competitors’ interests. Peviani v. Hostess Brands, Inc., No. 10-2302 (C.D. Cal., decided November 3, 2010). The plaintiff alleged on behalf of two nationwide classes that the marketing for six 100-calorie pack Hostess Brands products violated various California consumer-fraud laws because the company represented that the products contain “0 Grams of Trans Fat” when they actually contain partially hydrogenated oils, or artificial trans fat. According to the court, federal food-labeling laws allow the use of the phrase “0 Grams of Trans Fat” for those products containing less than 0.5 gram per serving and forbid states from…
The Massachusetts Public Health Council has approved a ban on the production and sale of reusable plastic products containing bisphenol A (BPA) that are intended for children younger than age 3. Targeted mainly at baby bottles and sippy cups, the ban will reportedly take effect on January 1, 2011, for manufacturers and July 1 for retailers. “We are taking this action as a precautionary measure,” Department of Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach said in a statement. “Our goal is to protect our most vulnerable residents—our children—in the light of mounting scientific evidence about the potential dangers of BPA.” See Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services Press Release, December 15, 2010.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final rule announcing that it has removed saccharin from its lists of hazardous substances, wastes and constituents because it “is no longer considered a potential hazard to human health.” EPA proposed on April 22, 2010, to remove the artificial sweetener from the lists, and apparently received no opposition to the plan. Commonly found in diet soft drinks, chewing gum and juice, saccharin had been labeled a potential cancer-causing substance in the 1980s. According to an EPA press release, however, the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer reevaluated scientific data on saccharin and its salts, concluding that they are not a potential human carcinogen. EPA removed the artificial sweetener from the hazardous lists because “the scientific basis for remaining” no longer applies. The final rule, which is in response to a Calorie Control Council petition to remove…
A recent National Research Council (NRC) report has apparently found no scientific evidence to support “more stringent testing of meat purchased through the government’s ground beef purchase program,” which distributes products to the National School Lunch Program and other public outlets. According to a December 9, 2010, National Academies press release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) purchases ground beef from suppliers “who must meet mandatory process, quality, traceback, and handling controls as well as comply with strict limitations on the amounts of bacteria in the meat, such as E. coli and salmonella.” To assess this program, the National Academies established a committee to review the scientific basis of AMS’s ground beef safety standards, evaluate how these standards compare to those used by large retail and commercial purchasers, and recommend possible improvements to the federal system. The committee evidently found that AMS’s “scientific basis for the current…
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force (IPTF) has issued a green paper titled Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework, which sets forth initial policy recommendations for “promoting consumer privacy online while ensuring the Internet remains a platform that spurs innovation, job creation, and economic growth.” To this end, the report “reviews the technological, legal, and policy contexts of current commercial data privacy challenges; describes the importance of developing a more dynamic approach to commercial privacy both in the United States and around the world; and discusses policy options (and poses additional questions) to meet today’s privacy challenges in ways that enable continued innovation.” Designed to promote “privacy, transparency and informed choice,” the IPTF framework reflects input from stakeholders in industry, academia and government. It specifically calls for (i) “establishing Fair Information Practice Principles comparable to a ‘Privacy Bill of Rights’ for…
President Barack Obama (D) has signed the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010 into law, calling the bipartisan legislation “vitally important to the health and welfare of our kids and to our country.” Details about the bill appear in Issue 374 of this Update. “We’re seeing this problem in every part of our country in kids from all different backgrounds and all walks of life,” the president said in a statement. “As a result, doctors are now starting to see conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type II diabetes in children—these are things that they only used to see in adults. And this bill is about reversing that trend and giving our kids the healthy futures that they deserve.” See White House Press Release, December 13, 2010.
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