Tropicana Successfully Thwarts Consumer Class Certification Bid in Pure Premium Orange Juice Labeling Litigation

On January 22, 2018, Hon. William J. Martini, U.S.D.J., declined to certify a prospective class of consumers who purchased Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice (“TPP”) holding that the Plaintiffs failed to allege that their purchasing decisions were influenced by TPP’s pasteurization claim. Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint, filed in 2012, alleges that TPP is flavored and colored in a way that violates the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s standard for pasteurized orange juice and therefore TPP should not hold itself out as “natural.” Plaintiffs’ proposed class consisted of consumers who purchased TPP.

In denying Plaintiff’s bid for class certification, Judge Martini further ruled that the Plaintiffs’ claims, specifically their common law and state law consumer protection/fraud claims, were “plainly unsuitable for class certification” because they require individualized proof. Moreover, Plaintiffs’ breach of express warranty claims failed to meet the Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 standard for class certification because certain Plaintiffs admitted that they had not read the TPP label or otherwise noticed the word “pasteurized” and indicated that they would purchase TPP again.

Walsh attorneys Liza Walsh, Christine Gannon and Joseph Linares, and co-counsel Daniel Nelson, Geoffrey Sigler, Lucas Townsend and Derek Kraft from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, represent Defendant Tropicana Products, Inc.

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