The maker of Kombucha Dog beverages has filed lawsuits against Trader Joe’s Co. and other kombucha producers alleging the companies misrepresent the amount of alcohol and sugar in their products and violate federal and state laws regulating the sale of alcohol beverages. Tortilla Factory, LLC v. Trader Joe’s Co., No. 18-2977; Tortilla Factory, LLC v. Better Booch, LLC, No. 18-2980; Tortilla Factory, LLC v. Makana Beverages, Inc., No. 18-2981; and Tortilla Factory, LLC v. Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha, LLC, No. 18-2984 (C.D. Cal., filed April 9, 2018). According to Tortilla Factory's complaints, kombucha's post-bottling fermentation can cause it to develop an alcohol content of 0.5 percent or more by volume, subjecting it to regulation under federal law, including Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau regulations that govern production, labeling and distribution. The complaints assert that independent testing revealed that the defendants' products contain between 1.0 and 2.7 percent alcohol but…
Panera Bread Co. faces a putative class action alleging that a data breach exposed the personal data of thousands of customers to hackers, increasing their risk of fraud and identity theft. Boykin v. Panera Bread Co., No. 18-2461 (N.D. Ill., filed April 5, 2018). The complaint alleges that the company failed to protect the personally identifiable information of Panera’s My Rewards card and My Panera app users, including names, credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates and verification codes, email addresses, telephone numbers and birth dates. In August 2017, a “white-hat hacker” apparently accessed the information and notified Panera about the potential security breach. Although Panera reportedly told the hacker it was developing a solution, the complaint alleges that the hacker “checked it every month or so” and ultimately contacted the publisher of Krebs on Security in 2018 to bring attention to the issue. The plaintiffs assert that in the…
A consumer has filed a putative class action alleging That’s It Nutrition deceptively labels and advertises its snack bars’ ingredients by using collective names for the fruits and vegetables they contain. Medina v. That’s It Nutrition, LLC, No. 18-2022 (E.D.N.Y., filed April 4, 2018). The complaint alleges that That's It fruit bar labels list generic names rather than specific ingredients; for example, one bar's label lists “apples” without specifying whether the ingredient is apple powder, puree or some other processed form of the fruit. “If the defendant began the bar production process with whole intact fruits, the ingredient list would indicate the presence of an additional binding ingredient such as a gel, pectin, juice concentrate or syrup, needed to keep the individual fruit matter together,” the complaint asserts. The label representations, which include “That’s it,” “All Natural,” “No Preservatives,” “Raw,” “No Purees or Juices,” “2 ingredient snack,” “Just Fruit” and…
The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is accepting public submissions of information relevant to the assessment of carcinogenicity of two chemicals—gentian violet and N-nitrohexamethyleneimine—that the agency is considering for inclusion on the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act (Prop. 65) list. Hazard identification materials for each of the chemicals will be presented at meetings of OEHHA’s Carcinogen Identification Committee. Public comments will be accepted through May 21, 2018.
After advocacy groups asserted that DJ Khaled promotes alcohol brands to minors on social media, the music producer has reportedly reduced the number of his posts that mention alcohol. The complaint also alleged that Khaled failed to disclose his endorsement relationship with the brands, which include Diageo's Ciroc vodka and Sovereign Brands' Belaire sparkling wine. The contested posts include a Snapchat video of Khaled pouring alcohol into a bowl of cereal and an Instagram post featuring alcohol bottles displayed behind Khaled. Reportedly, many of Khaled’s followers are minors and he is the national spokesperson for educational nonprofit Get Schooled. Several news sources reported that Khaled's posts may violate federal law—including Federal Trade Commission rules governing branded content—and industry self-regulation standards, as the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States prohibits alcohol ads appearing on platforms in which at least 28 percent of the audience is under 21. Diageo, which reportedly ended Snapchat advertising…
The Office of Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will host a public meeting on May 31, 2018, to provide information about the agenda items and U.S. positions for the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission to be held in Rome, Italy, on July 2-6, 2018. Public comments may be submitted before the meeting.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed multiple amendments to the National Poultry Improvement Plan, including changes to committee participation and testing procedures for avian influenza, typhoid and other diseases. Public comments will be accepted through May 9, 2018.
A California federal court has dismissed a putative class action against Dr Pepper Snapple Group without prejudice, finding the plaintiff may be able to amend her complaint to “plausibly allege” that aspartame causes weight gain. Becerra v. Dr Pepper Snapple Grp., No. 17-5921 (N.D. Cal., entered March 30, 2018). Although the plaintiff is not required to “scientifically prove causation at the pleading stage,” the court found, the studies she cited “do not allege causation at all—at best, they support merely a correlation or relationship between artificial sweeteners and weight gain, or risk of weight gain . . . [b]ut correlation is not causation, neither for purposes of science nor the law.” The court dismissed the plaintiff’s unfair competition claims, finding her “theory of deception fails to pass the ‘reasonable consumer’ test” because Diet Dr Pepper is not marketed as a weight-loss or weight-management product and is a “diet” product in relation…
The French agency responsible for protecting the country’s agricultural appellations of origin has filed a notice of opposition to a California winery’s application for the trademark “Beardeaux,” arguing that the use would dilute the protected term “Bordeaux” used to designate wines from southwestern France. Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité v. Bear River Winery LLC, No. 91240350 (T.T.A.B., notice of opposition filed March 29, 2018). The notice asserts that wines from the Bordeaux region of France are entitled to use an “appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC)” that “delimits the specific areas to which the appellation pertains, but also specifies the agricultural products from which the product may be derived and production methods and techniques that may be used to make the product.” Further, it argues that U.S. law recognizes the Bordeaux AOC “as a foreign nongeneric name of geographic significance which is also a distinctive designation of a specific…
A consumer has filed a putative class action alleging StarKist Co. misleads consumers by displaying the American Heart Association's Heart-Check Mark on its products. Warner v. StarKist Co., No. 18-0406 (N.D.N.Y., filed April 4, 2018). The complaint asserts, "Reasonable consumers see the Heart-Check Mark and mistakenly believe that a product with a Heart-Check Mark is healthier than a product without a Heart-Check Mark. In fact, a food manufacturer must pay the American Heart Association [] in order to place the Heart-Check Mark on its products. The Heart-Check Mark is a paid endorsement." The plaintiff alleges that StarKist "takes advantage of health-conscious consumers who are looking for heart-healthy foods by manipulating them in to believing that Star-Kist's products are more heart-healthy than products sold by other food manufacturers." Alleging violations of New York's consumer-protection statutes as well as unjust enrichment, the plaintiff seeks class certification, damages and attorney's fees.
