Gillian Davidson v. Sprout Foods, Inc.

INTRODUCTION

California’s analog to the federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) is known as the Sherman Law. It incorporates by reference all federal food labeling standards. These include a prohibition against labeling the front of baby food containers with the product’s nutrient content. Sprout Foods, Inc. (Sprout), the Defendant-Appellee, nevertheless produced pouches of baby food with labels on the front of the package conspicuously stating the amount of nutrients the pouches contained. Gillian and Samuel Davidson, the plaintiff-appellants, purchased some of the pouches. The Davidsons filed this putative class action in federal court claiming violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law, and alleging the pouch labels violate the Sherman

DAVIDSON V. SPROUT FOODS, INC.

Law. 1 The amended complaint also contained state law claims of false advertising, fraud, and deception, alleging that the nutrient content labels misled consumers into believing the products were good for babies when they were actually harmful. The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. It held that the Sherman Law claim was impliedly preempted because…