Foley Secures Ninth Circuit Victory for Del Monte in Labeling Dispute

Foley & Lardner LLP successfully represented Del Monte Foods in securing a victory before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the dismissal of a class action lawsuit accusing Del Monte of false advertising through deceptive labeling practices. The lawsuit, filed in California by an Oregon consumer, alleged that Del Monte falsely marketed its fruit cups as “natural” despite containing synthetic preservatives.

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.