Welcome to Class Dismissed

Morrison Foerster’s Class Dismissed blog provides insights and reports on the latest news, developments, and trends that affect consumer-facing companies. Subscribe to receive the latest updates by attorneys from our nationally recognized Consumer Class Action and Product Liability practices.

April 24, 2018 - Product Liability, Consumer Products, Retail
Here’s the Recipe: How to Ensure Your Food and Beverage Company Will Be Ready for a Value-Maximizing Sale
By: Spencer D. Klein, Joseph Sulzbach and Domnick Bozzetti
You’ve created a great product and built a valued brand. You’ve devoted countless hours to building relationships with key distributors and retailers, designing attractive packaging, and forging a social media presence. But are you doing everything to ensure that your business is set up
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April 16, 2018 - Privacy, Class Certification, Product Liability, Retail
Time Is Money: Time Spent Resolving Issues Arising from Data Breaches Enough to Plead Standing and Damages
By: Tiffany Cheung
Another court has allowed individuals to move past the preliminary stages of litigation by finding that “lost time” and the “time value of money” are injuries. Building on its prior rulings allowing data breach cases to jump over standing hurdles, on April 11, 2018, in
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March 30, 2018 - Privacy, Consumer Products
No Injury? No Problem: Mere Risk of Identity Theft Can Establish Standing
Overview Standing requirements have forced many a data breach action to stand down. Can a plaintiff have a claim (and on behalf of a massive class) when plaintiff hasn’t suffered any harm? For those polling the Circuits, the Ninth Circuit votes “yes.” And because
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March 27, 2018 - Internet of Things, Product Liability, Consumer Products, Government Actions, CPSC
CPSC Will Sharpen Its Focus on IoT in Upcoming Public Hearing About Internet-Connected Devices
By: Julie Y. Park
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today that on May 16, 2018, it will hold a public hearing on “potential safety issues and hazards associated with internet-connected consumer products.” [1] The Commission will hear testimony from interested stakeholders on potential safety hazards created
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March 23, 2018 - Privacy
The Dark Web—the Next Frontier in Data Breach Standing Analysis Amid a Deepening Circuit Split
By: Purvi G. Patel
A split among U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals regarding what harm should suffice to maintain standing in data breach litigation doesn’t get easier to address as new questions of whether extrinsic evidence from Dark Web searches of breached personal data for sale can be
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March 20, 2018 - TCPA, Class Action
An Autodialer Ain’t What It Used to Be: D.C. Circuit Rejects FCC’s Broad Ruling on the TCPA’s Scope
By: Tiffany Cheung and Julie O'Neill
Late last week, the D.C. Court of Appeals issued its much-anticipated ruling in ACA International et al. v. Federal Communications Commission , No. 15-1211 (Mar. 16, 2018).The ruling appears to pare back significantly the scope of activity that may be subject to the Telephone
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March 16, 2018 - Appellate & Supreme Court, Drug & Medical Device, Product Liability
Will High Court Provide Clarity On ‘Clear Evidence’?
By: Erin M. Bosman and Julie Y. Park
The U.S. Supreme Court may soon revisit one of its seminal decisions defining products liability law for pharmaceutical manufacturers. That decision — Wyeth v. Levine — addressed whether a branded manufacturer could be held liable for state-law failure-to-warn claims even though federal law regulates
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March 13, 2018 - Environmental Law, Product Liability, Consumer Products
WARNING: Proposition 65 Farce About to Repeat Itself for Vulnerable Foods and Flavorings
Plaintiffs have begun serving Proposition 65 notices of violation alleging unwarned exposures to furfuryl alcohol (FFA). Like acrylamide, which has been the subject of significant Proposition 65 litigation already, FFA is present in a wide variety of foods and flavorings and forms as a
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March 05, 2018 - Environmental Law, Product Liability, Consumer Products
Round One Goes to Roundup: Court Temporarily Enjoins Proposition 65 Warnings for Glyphosate and Glyphosate Residues in Foods
By: William F. Tarantino
Last Monday, a federal judge temporarily barred California from requiring cancer warnings on products that contain detectable amounts of glyphosate—the main ingredient in Monsanto’s flagship herbicide Roundup. Trace residues of glyphosate in food products had already become a potential target of Proposition 65 bounty
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March 05, 2018 - Autonomous Vehicles & Robotics, Product Liability, Consumer Products
Personal Delivery Devices (PDD): New Transportation Frontiers Emerge for Autonomous Vehicle Rulemakers
By: Tessa Schwartz
With regulatory frameworks around autonomous vehicles (AVs) under development at the federal, state, and local levels, new autonomous technology frontiers are emerging for rulemakers. The latest is personal delivery devices (PDDs) – essentially small autonomous vehicles designed primarily for last-mile logistics using sidewalks and
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Welcome to Class Dismissed

Here’s the Recipe: How to Ensure Your Food and Beverage Company Will Be Ready for a Value-Maximizing Sale

By: Spencer D. Klein, Joseph Sulzbach and Domnick Bozzetti

Time Is Money: Time Spent Resolving Issues Arising from Data Breaches Enough to Plead Standing and Damages

By: Tiffany Cheung

No Injury? No Problem: Mere Risk of Identity Theft Can Establish Standing

CPSC Will Sharpen Its Focus on IoT in Upcoming Public Hearing About Internet-Connected Devices

By: Julie Y. Park

The Dark Web—the Next Frontier in Data Breach Standing Analysis Amid a Deepening Circuit Split

By: Purvi G. Patel

An Autodialer Ain’t What It Used to Be: D.C. Circuit Rejects FCC’s Broad Ruling on the TCPA’s Scope

By: Tiffany Cheung and Julie O'Neill

Will High Court Provide Clarity On ‘Clear Evidence’?

By: Erin M. Bosman and Julie Y. Park

WARNING: Proposition 65 Farce About to Repeat Itself for Vulnerable Foods and Flavorings

Round One Goes to Roundup: Court Temporarily Enjoins Proposition 65 Warnings for Glyphosate and Glyphosate Residues in Foods

By: William F. Tarantino

Personal Delivery Devices (PDD): New Transportation Frontiers Emerge for Autonomous Vehicle Rulemakers

By: Tessa Schwartz