A federal court in California has refused to certify four classes of Starbucks employees in litigation alleging that its rest break policy and scheduling practices, and meal period policy and practices violated the state’s Labor Code and Unfair Competition Law. Cummings v. Starbucks Corp., No. 12-6345 (C.D. Cal., decided March 24, 2014). As to the proposed meal break class, the court found that the plaintiff’s “second theory of liability—that Starbucks had a practice of failing to provide timely meal breaks—does not present a common question of law” because “there is no common answer as to why employees took a late meal break, and individualized inquiries into each late meal break would be required.” The court also found as to this proposed class that the plaintiff’s claims did not meet the typicality requirement because her alleged late meal break claims were due not to a defective policy, but “because of unique…
Category Archives Issue 518
While a federal court in California has dismissed a request for injunctive relief in a consumer fraud action against Wallaby Yogurt Co. for lack of standing, it will allow the first amended complaint’s remaining claims to proceed. Morgan v. Wallaby Yogurt Co., Inc., No. 13-0296 (N.D. Cal., order entered March 13, 2014). Additional details about the court’s ruling on the plaintiff’s original complaint appear in Issue 500 of this Update. As to the request for prospective injunctive relief, the court agreed with the defendant that the plaintiffs will not be deceived as to future product purchases because they now know that “evaporated cane juice” is added sugar. So ruling, the court acknowledged a split among the district courts in the circuit on this issue. The court also expressly disagreed with Kane v. Chobani, Inc., No. 12-2425 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 19, 2013), to the extent that the court (i) found that…
A federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) court in California has granted POM Wonderful’s motion to decertify a class of claimants alleging that they were misled by health-benefit representations for the company’s pomegranate juice. In re POM Wonderful LLC Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 2199 (C.D. Cal., order entered March 25, 2014). Details about the motion appear in Issue 516 of this Update. According to a news source, the court found that (i) the plaintiffs’ two damages models failed to support a class action, and (ii) claims that consumers allegedly paid an inflated price for the company’s juice failed to explain how the company’s health-benefit representations caused damage. As to the practical effects of proceeding as a class action, the court reportedly stated, “Here, Plaintiffs acknowledge that, based on the volume of product sold, every adult in the United States is a potential class member. These millions of consumers paid…
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling denying the motion for preliminary injunction filed by meat producer interests in litigation challenging U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations requiring retailers of “muscle cuts” of meat to list the countries of origin and production (country-of-origin labeling or COOL) as to each step of production—born, raised or slaughtered. Am. Meat Inst. v. USDA, No. 13-5281 (D.C. Cir., decided March 28, 2014). The regulations at issue were adopted in 2013 in response to a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling finding their predecessor to violate the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. They “increased the required level of precision” to address each production step and also “eliminated the special allowance for commingled meat.” The plaintiffs argued that the amended rules ban commingling and thus alter “production practices over which the COOL statute gives the Secretary no authority,” and that the…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added methyl isobutyl ketone to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65). The chemical is used as a solvent for vinyl, epoxy, acrylic and natural resins, and as a synthetic flavoring adjuvant and a fruit flavoring. According to OEHHA, the listing is based on the authoritative body listing mechanism because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified it as a chemical that causes reproductive toxicity. The listing is effective March 28, 2014, and will require exposure warnings to consumers. See OEHHA News Release, March 28, 2014. Issue 518
A French Senate committee has issued a report, “Taxation and Public Health: Evaluation of Behavioral Taxation,” urging lawmakers to implement a “behavioral tax” to counteract poor dietary habits and help cover health care expenditures associated with consumption of “unhealthy” foods. While emphasizing the need for a sugar-sweetened beverage tax, the report also advocates harmonizing tax rates on vegetable oils, aligning cigarette and other tobacco product taxes, and repealing value-added tax breaks for certain foods and drinks linked to increased health care costs. See Tax-News.com, March 20, 2014. Issue 518
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency have announced an April 10, 2014, public meeting in Arlington, Virginia, to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions for discussion during the 46th Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Hong Kong, China, on May 5-17, 2014. Agenda items include (i) revision to the Codex classification of food and feed for step 6-selected vegetable commodity groups (roots and tubers); (ii) draft discussion paper on guidance for setting maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides for minor uses and specialty crops; (iii) revision of the committee’s risk analysis principles on pesticide residues; (iv) priority list for establishing MRLs for pesticides; and (v) guidance for assessing pesticide residue analysis methods. See Federal Register, March 26, 2014. Issue 518
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has secured the participation of all but one animal drug company in the agency’s plan to phase out the use of medically important antimicrobials in food animals for food production purposes, such as artificial weight gain. Each company has “committed in writing to seek withdrawal of approvals for any production uses of affected drug applications and change the remaining therapeutic uses of their products from over-the-counter (OTC) to use by Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) or prescription.” See FDA News Release, March 26, 2014.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that seeks information to help the agency “implement and enforce” amendments to the reportable food registry (RFR) provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Among other things, the new provisions permit FDA to (i) require that parties submit to FDA “consumer-oriented” information regarding certain reportable foods—defined as foods for “which there is a reasonable probability that use of, or exposure to, such food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals”; (ii) use such information to create consumer notification summaries for the agency’s Website; and (iii) obligate certain grocery stores that sell reportable food to display the notification summaries. FDA has requested input from the food industry, consumer organizations and other parties on certain topics, including (i) “what information should be required in…
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