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In the News

Class Action Food Lawsuits Are Booming

Reason, March 22, 2019

By: Baylen Linnekin

Class-action litigation targeting food companies is still a growth industry. That’s the conclusion reached by attorneys with Perkins Coie, a law firm that defends many food companies facing class-action lawsuits, in its annual report on class-action food litigation, published last month. The report, Food Litigation: 2018 Year in Review, notes 2018 was “one of the most active years on record” for food class actions (or “FCAs” as I’ve dubbed them).

That’s not a good thing. Last year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) reported that food “class actions result from lawyers shopping for cases, not consumer fraud.”

Over the years, I’ve written columns about some rather bizarre FCAs, including ones filed over the origins of Poland Spring water, the number of calories in Starburst candies, and the length of Subway‘s “footlong” subs. Too much foam in your Starbucks latte? File a lawsuit.

The Perkins Coie report shows FCAs grew in number by 9 percent last year—from 145 in 2017 to 158, tied for the highest number of suits in a year to date. The report highlights FCAs involving claims of false labeling, slack fill, and “natural” labeling, plus suits filed under Prop 65, an absurd California law that (and I’m oversimplifying only slightly) requires cancer and birth-defect warnings to appear on nearly everything and everyplace in the state.

In terms of trends, the Perkins Coie report indicates false labeling claims have grown steadily since 2015, while suits targeting slack fill (airy space in packaging) and “natural” label FCAs are down slightly. The report also notes California and New York continue to lead the way as the leading forums for filing such suits, accounting for more than three out of every four FCAs filed last year. Many of the California suits have been filed in California’s so-called “Food Court,” which helped spur the Orange County Register editorial board last year to dub the state America’s “judicial hellhole.”

Coincidentally, the same week the Perkins Coie report came out, my latest law review article, which discusses how to assess consumer perceptions of FCAs, was published in the Loyola Consumer Law Review, the only U.S. law journal dedicated solely to examining consumer-law issues. In the short article, Using Online Tools to Assess Consumer Perceptions of Class-Action Food Litigation, I study several recent FCAs around the country, starting with the aforementioned Subway lawsuit. In a methodology I repeat for each of the cases I discuss, I identified and studied a mainstream news outlet’s social-media coverage of an FCA and studied consumers’ stated impressions of the lawsuit.

I’d initially hoped that my research would establish guidelines that could be used to distinguish between what makes for a “good” or “bad” lawsuit. That turned out to be a far more ambitious challenged than I’d hoped. It also threatened to be an exercise in subjectivity masquerading as objectivity. With that in mind, I set out instead to assess whether and how consumers distinguish between what makes for a “good” or “bad” FCA.

That’s important question for several reasons. First, FCAs—and calls to reform or limit them—are proliferating. Second, no one—scholars, judges, attorneys, or policymakers—really has a good idea what consumers think about class-action lawsuits. Third, since FCAs (and class actions generally) are intended in large part to benefit consumers by compensating a broad class of similarly injured persons while penalizing those who have harmed this class anddiscouraging others who might have one day cause similar harms, it’s worth studying whether or not most consumers believe they are benefiting from (or being harmed by) such suits.

Finally, understanding consumer perceptions can help us better understand the famed and fabled “reasonable consumer.” As the Perkins Coie report notes, “the ‘reasonable consumer’ defense remained at the forefront in decisions on motions to dismiss” FCAs. That defense, according to the relevant caselaw, considers whether or not “a significant portion of the general consuming public or of targeted consumers, acting reasonably in the circumstances, could be misled.”

Based on my research, consumers are openly skeptical of FCAs. While a handful of the hundreds of social-media comments I read supported the various FCAs I studied, most commenters sided with the defendant, and many openly criticized plaintiffs’ attorneys and the American judicial system that allows FCAs to flourish.

The reasonable consumer can be a powerful tool for good. Consider that a federal court dismissed that FCA targeting Starbucks, noting that a “reasonable consumer would not be misled into believing that foam does not count toward some portion of the volume of their Latte.” So studying and better understanding the reasonable consumer is paramount. Doing so can and should yield better results in FCA cases. My article is a first step toward that understanding.

“As calls for class-action reforms grow,” I conclude in my Loyola Consumer Law Review article, “those who establish and amend rules for; study; and participate in such litigation—among them policymakers, judges, attorneys, and scholars, respectively—should consider the perceptions and wishes of consumers to help inform the basis, shape, and parameters of any such reforms.”

Perhaps only then can we fulfill the ILR’s clarion call to “restor[e] common sense to food class action litigation.”

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Texans for Lawsuit Reform

13 hours ago

Texans for Lawsuit Reform

When 30-year-old Quinnton Allen violated his parole for possession of a firearm, a Houston judge not only allowed him to stay on parole but granted him a PR bond for a felony. Unfortunately, the decision to release him on bond may have cost a man’s life. Read and share: bit.ly/3OvDU5z ... See MoreSee Less

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29-year-old man murdered after judge grants felony PR bond to armed robber recently paroled from prison

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HOUSTON – “I’ve never had any of these defendants we’ve profiled on Breaking Bond on parole and on a felony PR bond charged with murder,” said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers. “This is a fi...
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That judge should be held accountable

His family should get a good lawyer & sue the city & the judge…

The judge should be held as an accomplice to the murder before the fact and sued in civil court for his contribution to the death of the citizen.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform

1 day ago

Texans for Lawsuit Reform

Texas ports are thriving today, but in the early 2000s, abusive personal injury lawsuits threatened to shut them down. As the Port of Houston begins a long-awaited expansion, read more about the common-sense lawsuit reform in 2007 that saved our state’s shipping industry in this week’s TLR blog, For the Record: bit.ly/3aeTy6n ... See MoreSee Less

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Texans for Lawsuit Reform

3 days ago

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Wishing everyone a very happy Fourth of July! ... See MoreSee Less

Wishing everyone a very happy Fourth of July!
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Happy Independence Day America Today we celebrate our Republic 🇺🇸


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When 30-year-old Quinnton Allen violated his parole for possession of a firearm, a Houston judge not only allowed him to stay on parole but granted him a PR bond for a felony. The decision to release him on bond may have cost a man’s life. Read & RT:

29-year-old man murdered after judge grants felony PR bond to armed robber recently paroled from prison

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