Parties Reach Settlement in Yerba Mate ECJ Labeling Putative Class Action

A California federal court has approved a settlement in a case accusing
Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products Inc. of misleading its customers by
listing “organic evaporated cane juice” (ECJ) as an ingredient of its yerba mate
products. Cowan v. Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Prods. Inc., No. 14-1248
(U.S. Dist. Ct., N.D. Cal., order entered September 16, 2014). The terms of the
settlement agreement are confidential. The plaintiff’s suit was part of a deluge
of putative class actions alleging product mislabeling because the companies
included ECJ on their ingredient lists rather than, plaintiffs have argued, the
more common and accepted term for the substance, sugar. Many of these
cases have been dismissed without prejudice or stayed while courts and
parties await promised guidance on the issue from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. Additional information on recent cases appears in Issues 534,
532 and 530 of this Update.

Issue 538