The ease and convenience of subscription services has led to the skyrocketing in popularity for companies offering auto-renewal services. Ranging from entertainment to beauty products, almost anything is accessible via subscription and the California legislature has taken note of the possible vulnerabilities for consumers, enacting the Automatic Renewal Law (“ARL”), Business & Professions Code Sections 17600 et seq., The ARL was made effective in December 2010 and seeks to end the practice...

The Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA) is a New Jersey consumer protection law that protects consumers from signing contracts which strip away their rights to file product liability claims.  The TCCWNA is strict and clear, the consumer does not need to sign the allegedly offending paperwork and there is a fine for each customer or even a potential customer who views the contract. Recently, Avis Car Rental, Bed Bath & Beyond, the New Jersey Devils arena, Toys R Us...

Congress vested authority to promulgate regulations to prevent nonfunctional slack-fill in the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as to food, cosmetics, devices and drugs, and the Federal Trade Commission, as to other consumer commodities. Pursuant to that authority, the secretary elected to regulate nonfunctional slack-fill as to food products, but not as to other commodities. The FTC has thus far declined to enact regulations. The federal slack-fill regulations state that a food is...

A handful of large retailers and outlet stores across the country are facing class action suits for tricking consumers with “phantom markdowns”. Retailers like Calvin Klein, The Gap, Banana Republic, TJ Maxx, and Ross are at the center of the controversy alleging that companies are breaking federal and state laws which require that items with a list or retail price to have been sold for the amount listed at some previous point. These phantom markdown claims are particularly focusing on...

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) estimates that there are almost 50 million cases of food poisoning yearly and approximately 325,000 hospitalization. While many people recover in a few days the CDC estimates that there 5,200 deaths across the country in more vulnerable groups. Food poisoning lawsuits have come to the forefront, most notably with the E. Coli outbreak at Chipotle in late 2015 that sickened over forty people in different areas of the country. While E. Coli is one of the...

Various companies are facing massive lawsuits for defrauding consumers by using the term “evaporated cane juice” and implying that it is a healthy form of sweetener. The Food and Drug Administration has been sending out warning letters and providing draft guidance to companies, telling them to not use the words “evaporated cane juice” because it is false, misleading, and not “juice”. The agency further reprimanded companies pointing to regulations that indicate that ingredients must be...

After the tragic death of Anton Yelchin in July—known for his role as Pavel Chekov in the recent Star Trek movies— Fiat Chysler Automobiles has found itself in the middle of a massive class action lawsuit. The multi-million-dollar lawsuit springs from the gear shifter design in the 2012-2014 models of Dodge Chargers and the 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee models. According to the plaintiffs, the suit alleges that Chrysler hid problems with the shifter. The shifter would change position and...

Car makers Audi and Volkswagen were hit with a new class action suit in late May. The suit alleges that the companies fraudulently sold certain models that contained a hidden engine defect. The complaint also alleges that VW and Audi knew of the dangerous defect but did not issue a recall or compensate owners for any repairs occuring outside of the warranty period. The engine defect springs from defective timing chain tensioners that fail prematurely. This is the second class action for VW and...

A consumer fraud class action suit has been filed against Edgewood Personal Care, which owns Playtex—the parent company of the Banana Boat sunscreen maker. Banana Boat specializes in making sunscreens and is a staple sunblock brand. The plaintiff that filed the suit alleges that he purchased a bottle of Banana Boat Kids SPF 50 after seeing a Consumer Reports study that stated that Banana Boat’s—among other brands— products were overstating the amount of SPF contained. He sent the tube to a...

Gift cards make popular and versatile gifts, and for some companies, make for massive lawsuits. Various companies have been sued for gift card violations. For example, last August, Dave & Buster’s was sued in California for violating the cash-out provision under California’s gift card law. In California, a gift-card issuer must allow the holder of a card worth less than $10 to redeem it for cash upon request. Moreover, California does not permit gift cards to carry an expiration date....

It is no news that debit and credit cards are now the primary form of retail payments. Some sources estimate that sixty percent of retail transactions involve card payments, opening retailers to significant data breaches and lawsuits. Congress is considering enacting federal standards to protect consumers following data breaches that would supersede state-breach statutes and provide more a more uniform response nationwide. In the last year, various retailers have been sued because of stolen...

Headlines read “Exploding Toilets!” and while funny at first glance, it turns out to be a serious safety issue. Some consumers reported that their toilets exploded violently, sending pieces of porcelain everywhere with great force. These explosions led to a massive recall by Flushmate, makers of the high pressure flushing systems. The affected toilets were made between 1997 to 2011 and include various models. The company estimates that it is recalling over 3 million toilet systems and is...

Lawsuits have increased in recent years against various companies by blind and deaf plaintiffs that are alleging that the websites violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. The cases are mostly concentrated in California, New York, and Pennsylvania. The cases have become more complicated because the Department of Justice announced in 2010 that it would be issuing formal regulations but not until 2018. Various judges, however, refuse to wait that long. In California, one judge granted...

Bank overdraft fees are standard practice for banks—and a great source for profit. Many banks assess fees for going over the bank account balance. Some estimates state that the banking industry has made over $35 billion off of customers in the last year. Among the banks facing lawsuits are Sovereign Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, M&T Bank and Wachovia. These companies are being accused of charging unreasonable fees when customer balances fell below a minimum balance. They are also...

Under MMWA, any warrantor warranting a consumer product to a consumer by means of a written warranty must disclose, fully and conspicuously, in simple and readily understood language, the terms and conditions of the warranty to the extent required by rules of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has enacted regulations governing the disclosure of written consumer product warranty terms and conditions on consumer products actually costing the consumer more than $5. The Rules can be found at 16...

On Tuesday, September 13th, 2016, many Hewlett-Packard (HP) consumers who used non-HP, private label ink cartridges found that their printer displayed an error instructing the ink cartridges must be replaced.  Thousands of HP printers around the world started to show the error message, “One or more cartridges appear to be damaged. Remove them and replace them with new cartridges“. The error was not a coincidence, but rather a pre-program act by HP in several different printer models....

Kellogg Company today announced a voluntary recall of approximately 10,000 cases of Kellogg's® Eggo® Nutri-Grain® Whole Wheat Waffles because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. No other Eggo products are impacted by this recall. Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as...

A familiar sight around Los Angeles now is a white, windowless van with a magnetic Amazon.com sign slapped across one side and a delivery driver dropping off Amazon.com packages around the neighborhood.  The delivery drivers, who most people assume are employed by Amazon.com, are actually employed Action Messenger Service. One driver, Carlos Morales, filed an employment class action against both Amazon.com and Action Messenger Service in Alameda Superior Court.  Morales alleges that he was...

September was a great month, here is a small recap of actions filed over the last few weeks both nationally and in California. Class actions highlights from California include multiple civil rights actions involving the Counties of Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino of charging excessive rates to inmates and their families; Amazon for possibly misclassifying delivery drivers as independent contractors; LG television products may not be energy efficient; an action brought under the...

Warning: California Mother’s Market & Kitchen Baby Formula Recall All Sammy’s Milk Baby Food is being recalled by the FDA because the formula has not been tested for Cronobacter, a bacteria that can cause severe and sometimes fatal blood infection (sepsis) or meningitis in infants. The formula is sold online and California Mother’s Market & Kitchen retail store. Consumers in California should not use or purchase Sammy’s Milk Baby Food, a powered infant formula) manufactured by...

WARNING TOYOTA PRIUS OWNERS:  TOYOTA RECALLS 340,000 PRIUSES GLOBALLY DUE TO PARKING BRAKE ISSUE; 94,000 affected in the US Toyota issued a recall to 94,000 owners of Toyota Priuses manufactured between August 2015 and October 2016 because of a potentially deadly defect involving the parking brake becoming inoperable. The parking brake was discovered to stay in another gear instead of ‘Park’ while the ignition is on and this could result in the Prius rolling away, creating a potentially deadly...