The information age in which we live is reaching a new milestone with the development and ready access to conversational artificial intelligence based on advanced transformer algorithms, or AI chatbots, including their...more
There’s a new class action trend consumer product companies need to be aware of that is not only causing additional stress when faced with a recall but also increased expense and adverse publicity.
There are a number of...more
The food industry has been upended by the recent COVID-19 pandemic – restaurants and bars are scrambling to adjust to a new way of life after governors across America issued statewide “stay at home” orders in response to the...more
The old joke of “what do Philosophy majors ask at their first job?” takes on a new meaning in the world of Prop 65.
On October 7, 2019, the California Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit in Federal court for the Eastern...more
10/14/2019
/ Cancer ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
First Amendment ,
Food Labeling ,
Injunctive Relief ,
OEHHA ,
Proposition 65 ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Retail Market ,
State and Local Government ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Exposure ,
Warning Labels
In Fleetwood Mac’s magnum opus, “Landslide,” Stevie Nicks croons, “Well, I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’ ‘cause I’ve built my life around you.” The FTC’s recent workshop on Made in the USA claims reveals a similar hesitancy to...more
10/7/2019
/ Advertising ,
Bad Actors ,
Buy American Act ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Imports ,
Made in the USA ,
Manufacturers ,
Online Marketplace ,
Product Labels ,
Public Comment
I suspect that we’ve all had this experience. You’ve finished a long day of work, had dinner, and have cozied up on the couch with a glass of wine to watch a re-run of your favorite TV show. The show goes to commercial and...more
As has been widely reported, in May 2018, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that Prop 65 warning labels are required to be placed on “ready-to-drink” coffee products. Acrylamide, a Prop 65 listed chemical that...more
One week after a San Francisco jury decided against Monsanto and awarded a plaintiff $289 million due to the alleged exposure that caused his cancer, the California Supreme Court refused to hear any further challenges by...more
On July 1, 2018, California’s revised Automatic Renewal Law (ARL), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17600 et seq., goes into effect.
The updated law requires e-commerce sellers, doing business in California, to allow online...more
6/22/2018
/ Auto-Renewal ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Contract Renewal ,
Contract Terms ,
E-Commerce ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Goods or Services ,
Internet Retailers ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Subscription Services ,
Unfair Competition
Recently, a federal judge sitting in the Eastern District of California (Sacramento), for the first time, refused to require a manufacturer to place a Prop 65 warning on its product based on a finding that the requirement...more
Fresh off a victory in the CA primary, California Attorney General Xavier Bacerra filed suit on June 7, 2018 against Nutraceutical Corporation of Park City, Utah and Graceleigh, Inc. dba Sammy’s Milk of Newport Beach, CA,...more
As this space has addressed before, the California Transparency in Supply Chain Act (Civ. Code section 1714.43), enacted in 2010, requires large retailers and manufacturers (those with worldwide sales in excess of $100...more
6/8/2018
/ Child Labor ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Duty to Disclose ,
Forced Labor ,
Human Rights ,
Human Trafficking ,
Manufacturers ,
Product Labels ,
Supply Chain ,
Transparency in Supply Chains Act
As this space has discussed on several occasions, there are many issues with California’s Prop 65. In full disclosure, most of the issues I discuss here are presented from the viewpoint of businesses that find themselves at...more
A recent Federal Court decision on the issue of whether to grant a preliminary injunction in the ongoing saga of the appropriateness of adding the pesticide Glyphosate to the CA Prop 65 list has become the grist for the “Fake...more
3/5/2018
/ Enforcement Actions ,
First Amendment ,
Government Speech Doctrine ,
Motion To Enjoin ,
Natural Products ,
OEHHA ,
Pesticides ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Product Labels ,
Proposition 65 ,
Retail Market ,
Toxic Exposure
Much of the recent discussion regarding Prop 65 has been focused on the regulatory changes going into effect in August of 2018. And that makes sense since there will be significant changes to the warnings, responsibility, and...more
1/11/2018
/ CA Supreme Court ,
First Amendment ,
OEHHA ,
Pesticides ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Proposition 65 ,
Safe Harbors ,
Supremacy Clause ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Exposure ,
Warning Labels ,
Websites
With the start of college football season around the corner, attention turns to off-season shake ups in coaching staffs. One controversial change involved defensive coordinator Robert H. Shoop. Shoop traded in his blue and...more
9/1/2017
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Breach of Contract ,
Coaches ,
Colleges ,
Constructive Discharge ,
Employment Contract ,
Football ,
Hostile Environment ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms
California’s Safe Drinking Water & Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (affectionately known as “Proposition 65”) has long been the subject of discussion, both pro and con. Much of the conversation is on various issues surrounding...more
It has recently been reported by Reuters that President Donald Trump is looking for ways to defend American-made products by certifying legitimate U.S. goods and aggressively going after imported products unfairly sporting...more
Legal actions regarding “Made in the USA” claims, whether prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or through various state unfair trade practices acts, often settle early in the proceedings. For example, in 2014,...more
Last month, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (“OEHHA”) adopted new Proposition 65 warning regulations. Much of the discussions regarding these new regulations have centered on the warning...more
10/12/2016
/ Amended Regulation ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Manufacturers ,
OEHHA ,
Proposition 65 ,
Public Comment ,
Retailers ,
Safe Harbors ,
Suppliers ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Exposure ,
Warning Labels
As a parting act before its seven-week recess, the House last Thursday passed by a vote of 306-117 Senator Pat Roberts’s (R-KS) legislation (S.764) requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods. Already approved by...more
Four months after the Senate defeated a GE labeling bill (S.2609) introduced by Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS), the upper chamber Thursday night passed, 63-30, a compromise measure (S. 764) that Roberts...more
We recently blogged about a new wave of class action litigation related to California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act. In December, Nestlé USA won the dismissal of a complaint against it alleging that the company was...more
3/8/2016
/ Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Duty to Disclose ,
Forced Labor ,
Hersheys ,
Human Trafficking ,
Manufacturers ,
Nestle ,
Safe Harbors ,
Suppliers ,
Transparency in Supply Chains Act
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) contained a scene where bodies of plague victims were brought out to the curb for collection via a cart whether or not they properly belonged there. One living fellow insists on not...more
As we recently blogged about, in January the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Rule 68 ‘pick off’ strategy in its Campbell-Edwald decision. The ‘pick off’ strategy’ occurs when defense counsel offers the plaintiff full relief...more