McDonough and Settles Detail Hershey False Ad Case for Food and Drug Law Institute

Shook, Hardy & Bacon attorneys Madeleine McDonough and Jara Settles have co-authored a chapter in the Food and Drug Law Institute’s Top 20 Food and Drug Cases, 2014 and Cases to Watch, 2015. They discuss the district court’s decision in Khasin v. Hershey, in which a consumer challenged the confectioner’s label claims of health value and antioxidant content in several products. McDonough and Settles detail factors in the court’s rationale for dismissing most of the case, including a detrimental admission that the plaintiff did not rely upon the labeling when purchasing the products at issue. “Khasin highlights the importance of demonstrating actual reliance in putative consumer protection class actions,” they explain. “After months of briefing and discovery, a simple conversation (in the form of a deposition) destroyed the vast majority of plaintiff’s claims.” The court later dismissed the rest of the plaintiff’s claims as well. Details of the dismissal appear in Issue 560 of this Update.

Issue 570