Sectores
Foley & Lardner LLP representou com sucesso a Del Monte Foods na obtenção de uma vitória perante o Tribunal de Apelações do Nono Circuito, que confirmou o arquivamento de uma ação colectiva que acusava a Del Monte de publicidade falsa através de práticas de rotulagem enganosas. A ação, intentada na Califórnia por um consumidor do Oregon, alegava que a Del Monte comercializava falsamente os seus copos de fruta como "naturais", apesar de conterem conservantes sintéticos.
The Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court’s decision, ruling that the phrase “Fruit Naturals” was not unambiguously deceptive and that a reasonable consumer would refer to the back label to confirm ingredient information. The court also determined that the plaintiff’s survey, which the plaintiff contended demonstrated the label’s deceptiveness, was uninformative, as it failed to assess consumer understanding of the term “naturals” as a noun and not as an adjective and merely asked what respondents thought “natural” should mean on the label of a product, not what they thought it actually did mean as used on the Del Monte labels.
The Foley team was led by partner Erik Swanholt and senior counsel Kelsey Boehm.
