Perkins Coie Releases Ninth Annual Food & Consumer Packaged Goods Litigation Year in Review.
In 2024, class action filings against the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry reached a near high, with close to three hundred lawsuits filed. This year was notable for the wide variety of kind of claims at issue — natural, protein content, multi-function ingredients, packaging fill, and sustainability claims. The combination of the pace and breadth of theories suggests that these current trends will not abate soon.
Once again, litigation activity remained vigorous around microcontaminants in the form of purportedly harmful trace substances—including heavy metals, phthalates, and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Because these filings have spread to courts nationwide, 2024 saw some uncertainty come into this area of the law with different courts coming to differing conclusions as to whether and when it is actionable to misleadingly “omit” from the label the potential presence of these trace substances.
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