Olive Oil False Ad Class Certified

A California federal court has granted certification to a class of
consumers alleging that Salov North America Corp., maker of Filippo
Berio olive oil, misleads consumers by labeling its oil as “Imported
from Italy” even though most of the oil is produced in Tunisia, Greece
and Spain. Kumar v. Salov N. Am. Corp., No. 14-2411 (N.D. Cal., order
entered July 15, 2016). The court dismissed Salov’s arguments against
the plaintiff serving as class representative because of her felony record
and her friendship with class counsel, finding that the charge of driving
under the influence does not call her honesty and integrity into question
and that the plaintiff’s friend is one of several class counsel in the
case. Additional details about the case appear in Issues 554 and 590 of
this Update, while details on class certification in the plaintiff’s lawsuit
against Safeway involving similar allegations appear in Issue 606.

Issue 612