Lawsuit Challenging “100% Natural” Claims for Granola Bars Dismissed
A federal court in California has dismissed without prejudice putative class claims that Nature Valley granola bars were fraudulently promoted as “100% Natural” while containing purportedly non-natural ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Wright v. General Mills, Inc., No. 08-1532 (S.D. Cal., decided September 30, 2009).
The court refused to dismiss the claims as preempted under federal law or under the primary jurisdiction doctrine, which allows courts to stay or dismiss litigation “pending the resolution of an issue within the special competence of an administrative agency.” The dismissal was based instead on the plaintiff’s failure to plead her claims with sufficient specificity under recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have, according to the court, dramatically changed the federal courts’ notice-pleading standard.
The court determined that the first amended complaint (FAC) “is based on little more than conclusory and speculative factual content . . . Plaintiff argues that her FAC alleges economic injury: ‘As a direct result of its misleading, deceptive, untrue advertising and its unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices related to the “100% Natural” products listed above, Defendant caused Plaintiff and other members of the Class to purchase, purchase more of, or pay more for, these Nature Valley products.’” The court characterized this allegation as “sparse” and found that it did not “meet the Twombley [sic] and Iqbal pleading standard.”
The court also ruled that plaintiff’s request for injunctive relief and her allegations of unfair business practices and fraud failed to meet that standard, finding inadequate under Twombly allegations “that members of the public were likely to have been deceived and likely made their purchases on the basis that ‘100% Natural’ would not include a highly processed ingredient such as HFCS.” The plaintiff has 30 days to amend her complaint.
