A putative class action complaint alleging that a product labeled “Premium Baking Chips Classic White Chips” deceptively implied the product contained white chocolate has been dismissed after a federal court held that no reasonable consumer would be deceived because the product nowhere stated “chocolate” or “cocoa,” and the ingredient list plainly disclosed the product did not contain those ingredients. The decision reflects a growing trend of district courts limiting the Ninth Circuit’s Williams v. Gerber rule that a reasonable consumer need not examine the ingredient list.
Natural Cosmetics: Products Without a Clear Definition
Consumer demand for natural cosmetics continues to grow. A Bloomberg News article projected the natural cosmetics market to grow over 5% annually and to be worth $48.04 billion by 2025. The article noted that high demand for natural products among millennials is “driving the growth,” which means the trend is likely to continue. Despite the increasing market share, the federal agencies that regulate the sale and advertising of cosmetics, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), still have not formally defined the term “natural” as applied to cosmetics.
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Deliberate Without Documents? Denying a jury’s request for exhibits without a substantive justification might be reversible error in some courts
Jurors are factfinders. In many deliberation rooms, however, jurors must begin their discussions without ready access to the exhibits admitted during trial. If a jury requests particular exhibits or evidence, then a trial court may exercise its discretion to decide whether to provide the requested materials. And in some courtrooms, a jury’s requests to review specific exhibits are routinely denied.
Abuse of discretion is a challenging standard of review for any appealing party. What would a party need to show to establish that a trial court abused its discretion? A recent opinion from Pennsylvania Superior Court, Schrader v. Ameron International Corporation, No. 2609 EDA 2018, 2020 WL 1460697 (Pa. Super. March 24, 2020), sheds some light.
Theoretical Injury Won’t Hack It: Illinois Federal Court Dismisses Jeep Drivers’ Class Action for Lack of Standing
An Illinois federal judge dismissed a trio of certified putative class actions involving 220,000 Jeep Cherokee drivers from Missouri, Michigan, and Illinois for lack of standing. The decision underscored a key principle: Theoretical injury is not enough for purposes of standing.
In Flynn, et al. v. FCA US LLC, et al., Case No. 15-cv-855, the plaintiffs alleged that defendants FCA US LLC and Harman International Industries Inc. installed defective “UConnect” infotainment systems in Jeep Cherokees and other vehicles which could be hacked by outsiders and subsequently remotely controlled. The class actions arose from a single 2015 hack of the UConnect system executed by two highly skilled researchers in a controlled experiment, as reported by Wired magazine. None of the other “1.2 million subject vehicles with the purported defects” had been hacked.
FDA Funding Opportunity Announcement: “Exploring the use of Real-World Data to Generate Real-World Evidence in Regulatory Decision-Making (U01) Clinical Trials Optional”
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled “Exploring the use of Real-World Data to Generate Real-World Evidence in Regulatory Decision-Making (U01) Clinical Trials Optional.” The FOA relates to the FDA’s RWE Framework published in December 2018, and is issued “to support research projects that examine real-world data (RWD), real-world evidence (RWE), and related issues such as data analytics, the use of digital health tools, and innovative trial designs utilizing healthcare settings.”
The FOA specifically seeks the submission of proposed projects that explore the utility of RWD and RWE in the generation of evidence supporting regulatory approval of new indications of use or post-approval study requirements for approved medicines. The FDA defines RWD as “data relating to patient health status and/or the delivery of health care routinely collected from a variety of sources.” RWE is “clinical evidence about the use and potential benefits or risks of a medical product derived from analysis of RWD.”