On August 14, 2023, a panel of judges for the United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a published opinion affirming dismissal of two complaints alleging that food product labels advertising the amount of protein in products were false and misleading under federal and state law. The panel held that the claims were preempted by FDA regulations.

In Case No. 22-15377, the panel ruled on two related cases, Nacarino v. Kashi, and Brown v. Kellogg. The plaintiffs in both cases argued that the protein claim on Kashi and Kellogg’s labels were false because the nitrogen method ...

On July 21, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court order denying Domino Pizza’s motion to compel arbitration in a putative class action brought by plaintiff Dominos truck drivers who alleged that Domino’s had violated California labor law.

The decision in Carmona v. Domino’s Pizza, No. 21-55009 involved an analysis of the Federal Arbitration Act. A Ninth Circuit panel had previously affirmed the denial of the motion to compel, but the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the panel’s decision and remanded ...

Following the United States Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Moriana v. Viking River Cruises, California courts were tasked with the open question of whether an “aggrieved” employee whose individual Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims are subject to an arbitration agreement has standing to represent other similarly aggrieved employees in Superior Court.  In Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc., the California Supreme Court answered that question in the affirmative; a representative employee’s standing to represent others is not affected by any existing ...

Q: I was appointed state court receiver over a corporation. There are a number of pending lawsuits against the corporation. At the current time, there are few liquid assets and I would rather not use them to defend the lawsuits. Can the receivership court stay the lawsuits and require the claims be dealt with in a claims procedure in the receivership case?

A: It depends. The pivotal issue is whether the case you were appointed in is an action (C.C.P §22) or a special proceeding ( C.C.P. §23). The distinction is important because C.C.P. § 526(b)(1) prohibits an injunction: “to stay a ...

The Court of Appeal of the State of California recently held in Thai v. IBM, A165390, that employers are obligated to reimburse expenses incurred by employees working from home if those expenses are a consequence of the employee’s job duties, even if those expenses were caused by state stay-at-home COVID orders rather than by the employer.

Plaintiff Paul Thai (“Thai”) is a former IBM employee whose regular job duties required internet access, telephone service, a computer, and a headset. On March 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-33-20 (the ...

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously held in Groff v. DeJoy, No. 22-174, that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) requires an employer that denies a religious accommodation to show that the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs that would affect the conduct of the employer’s business.

U.S. Post Office employee Gerald Groff is an Evangelical Christian who believes that Sunday should be devoted to worship and rest.  Groff had been a USPS employee since 2012. At the time he started, the USPS ...

On July 6, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) released an updated list of draft and final topics that the agency anticipates publishing guidance documents for by the end of December 2023.

The guidance topics on labeling issues include:

• Foods Derived from Plants Produced Using Genome Editing;
• Menu Labeling Supplemental Guidance;
• Labeling of Plant-Based Alternatives to Animal-Derived Foods;
• Use of Nutrient Content Claims for Added Sugars in the Labeling of Human Food Products

FDA stated: “[w]e currently intend to develop guidance on each topic; however ...

Over the last several years several companies, including Marriott, Yahoo and Volkswagen, have been victimized by hackers breaking into a company’s computer network. In some cases, they have put confidential information on the internet. In others, the hackers have held the company’s information hostage through ransomware. While companies are rightly concerned about the security of their own networks, there is another risk. Recent court cases are testing the liability of companies and their directors for data breaches suffered by their vendors or service providers. This is ...

On June 27, 2023, the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) went into effect.  The law requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an “undue hardship.”

The PWFA does not replace federal, state, or local laws that are more protective of workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. These laws have been passed in approximately 30 jurisdictions ...

On June 30, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it would be publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking on the use of consumer reviews and testimonials.

The proposed rule follows FTC’s November 2022 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The FTC voted 3-0 to approve the notice of proposed rulemaking, which will be published in the Federal Register and open to public comment.

Specific practices that would be prohibited under the proposed rule and subject to FTC fines or enforcement action include:

• Selling or Obtaining Fake Consumer Reviews, Consumer ...