Retail & Consumer Products

Last week, the California Supreme Court granted review of Ramos v. Brenntag Specialties, Inc. to resolve a split in the Second Appellate District regarding the application of California’s component parts doctrine.

The House of Representatives is currently considering H.R. 5016, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act of 2015, which provides funding to many different parts of the federal government for the next fiscal year.

Today the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved three pending nominations for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Last week, a California federal judge revived a putative class action accusing Amy’s Kitchen Inc. of misleading customers by labeling sugar as “evaporated cane juice” on its products.

On June 27, 2014, Judge Claude M. Hilton of the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed the complaint filed against the power tool industry by SawStop, LLC. We previously wrote about this lawsuit and the need for companies and trade associations to develop sound legal policies and procedures to avoid antitrust lawsuits last month.

We previously wrote about the recent 4th Circuit decision that ordered the unsealing of a district court opinion siding with a manufacturer who challenged a product safety report the CPSC planned to post on its Saferproducts.gov public database.

In April, we wrote about the Vermont legislature’s approval of a bill that would require manufacturers to change the retail labels of certain foods to indicate that they are GMO. 

In most respects, trade associations are pro-competitive organizations: they join together competitors to advance worthwhile goals and to learn from one another.

Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled, 8-0, that Pom Wonderful LLC could pursue mislabeling claims under the federal Lanham Act against the Coca-Cola Company, even though the label at issue complied with FDA labeling regulations.

On June 10, 2014 the federal government proposed to expand the coverage of the rule designed to weed out counterfeit electronic parts in products sold to the Government.

The CPSC's Acting Chairman, Robert (Bob) Adler, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for his confirmation hearing this week along with four other nominees for various positions within the federal government.

According to the Senate Commerce Committee's hearings calendar, the committee will be holding a nominations hearing on June 11th at 2:30pm to "consider several nominations."

Former CPSC Chairman Ann Brown recently sent a letter to the leaders of the CPSC’s congressional oversight committee asking for them to “urge the Commission to consider its proposed [voluntary recalls] rule carefully and to assure that it does not adversely affect CPSC’s Fast Track Recall Program.”

The CPSC recently released a new monthly progress report form for companies conducting recalls with the agency.

Mintz Levin recently published a Litigation Alert titled The Case That Could Significantly Disrupt How Companies Manage Their Gift Card Programs and Could Create Billions of Dollars in Exposure. This Alert analyzes a recently unsealed qui tam complaint filed in Delaware, and should be essential reading for any company with a gift card program.

We have all seen or heard about them without, perhaps, knowing what they were or for what they stand: the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING seal of approval, UL certified, ENERGY STAR rated, GROWN IN IDAHO potatoes,  HARRIS TWEED, and many, many more.

In an unexpected move, President Obama announced this afternoon his intent to renominate current CPSC Acting Chairman, Robert Adler, to a second term at the agency.

On May 9, 2014, the CPSC and the maker of Buckyballs and Buckycubes settled the July 2012 administrative case brought by the CPSC alleging that these “rare earth magnets” pose a substantial product hazard. 

In January and April, this space took a look at the growing patchwork of state proposals for regulating the labeling of foods with genetically modified ingredients (GMOs).

In response to a written request from 32 trade associations and issues raised by 58 public comments, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) decided at its public meeting this morning that it will seek further public input prior to finalizing a proposed amendment to its certificates of compliance regulation (often referred to as the “1110 rule”).