Round One Goes to Roundup: Court Temporarily Enjoins Proposition 65 Warnings for Glyphosate and Glyphosate Residues in Foods
- 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... ›
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... ›California Opens the Road to Fully Driverless Cars; Federal Policymaking Slowly Rolls Forward
By: Tessa Schwartz
On February 26, 2018, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced new regulations allowing fully driverless cars to be tested on California roads as of April 2, 2018. The announcement culminates a multi-year process undertaken by DMV. The new regulations mark a significant... ›California Proposes Next Group of Priority Products Under Its Green Chemistry Initiative
By: William F. Tarantino
California’s Green Chemistry Initiative has taken another step towards regulating a widely available consumer product. On February 15, 2018, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) released a discussion draft document entitled "Product – Chemical Profile for Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in Carpets... ›California’s Green Chemistry Agency Issues Its Draft 2018-2020 Three-Year Priority Product Work Plan
By: William F. Tarantino
On February 8, 2018, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) released a Draft Three-Year Priority Product Work Plan (2018-2020) (new Work Plan) under its Safer Consumer Products (SCP) Program. The SCP Program is an innovative regulatory scheme to evaluate and require safer... ›Reading the Tea Leaves: Ninth Circuit Further Clarifies Injunctive Standing Issues in Bigelow Tea Cases
On December 20, 2017, the Ninth Circuit refined the injunctive standing requirements in the misbranding context in Victor v. Bigelow and Khasin v. Bigelow (collectively, “ Bigelow ”), finding that injunctive standing is limited and requires a current intent to purchase challenged products in... ›Nomination of a New Chairman at the CPSC
By: Erin M. Bosman and Julie Y. Park
With the start of the new year, President Trump again nominated Republican Ann Marie Buerkle to chair the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Her expected confirmation will continue to push the CPSC in a more corporate-friendly direction that focuses on consensus building rather... ›Connected Devices Bring New Product Liability Challenges
By: Erin M. Bosman and Julie Y. Park
“My Google Home Mini was inadvertently spying on me 24/7 due to a hardware flaw,” wrote a tech blogger who purchased Google Inc.’s latest internet of things (IoT) device. Following the incident, a pact of consumer advocacy groups insisted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety... ›Makeup Shake Up: Potential New Federal Cosmetics Regulations
By: Erin M. Bosman and Julie Y. Park
“Make fine lines and wrinkles disappear!” “Reduce the visibility of fine lines and wrinkles!” At first read, these claims sound one in the same. But for decades, a slight difference in phrasing of cosmetics claims—created as a function of current cosmetics regulations—has been responsible... ›California Appellate Court Upholds Denial of Class Certification on Ascertainability Grounds
On December 4, 2017, a panel of the California Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed a trial court’s denial of class certification for alleged violations of California’s unfair competition, consumer protection, and false advertising laws. In so doing, the court upheld the lower court’s conclusions... ›