Blue Buffalo Class Actions Consolidated in Missouri Fed. Court

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The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has agreed to consolidate seven false advertising class action lawsuits filed against Blue Buffalo Co. Ltd. for misleading customers about the ingredients in its pet food.

The Blue Buffalo multidistrict litigation (MDL), or mass tort, will be handled in Missouri federal court because there are two similar pet food false advertising class action lawsuits already underway there brought against another pet food maker.

The Blue Buffalo class action lawsuits were filed in Connecticut, New York, Florida, Illinois, and Missouri federal courts and have been sent to the Missouri federal court in St. Louis under U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel.

There were also pet food false advertising class action lawsuits filed against Blue Buffalo by competitor Nestle Purina PetCare Co. under Judge Sippel that make the same allegations .

The Blue Buffalo class action lawsuits all take issue with the pet food’s “True Blue Promise” label, which is supposed to be a guarantee that the pet food is made with the best ingredients and provides a nutritious diet for customers’ pets, and are made without both poultry byproducts and artificial preservatives.

According to the plaintiffs, Purina did testing on the pet food products and found that almost a quarter of the pet food is made with poultry byproducts.

Both Blue Buffalo and the plaintiffs who filed the pet food class action lawsuits in the federal courts in Connecticut and New York wanted the lawsuits sent to the Connecticut federal court. The plaintiffs who filed their lawsuits in the Missouri, Illinois, and Florida wanted the lawsuits centralized in the Missouri federal court in the Eastern district.

The plaintiffs in Connecticut and New York also wanted the false advertising class action lawsuits filed by Nestle Purina to be kept separate from the MDL. They wanted the Purina lawsuits to be kept separate because they said that they lacked class issues, but Judge Sippel included them in the MDL.

“Centralization will eliminate duplicative discovery; prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings (in particular with respect to discovery and class certification issues); and conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel and the judiciary,” the panel wrote.

St. Louis is a central location for all parties geographically, Judge Sippel is experienced in handling MDLs, and he is already managing the class action lawsuits against Nestle Purina, which makes him a good choice for handling the Blue Buffalo class action lawsuits, the panel explained.

“We are confident he will steer this litigation on a prudent course,” the judges wrote.

Two Blue Buffalo pet food class action lawsuits were filed in May — one in an Illinois federal court by plaintiff Rachel Stone and one by Nestle Purina in the Missouri federal court.

They alleged that Blue Buffalo misled its customers by claiming its pet food products did not contain any chicken byproducts, corn or grain and led them to pay premium prices for the pet food.

The plaintiffs are represented by the Simon Law Firm PC, Donovan Rose Nester PC, Carlson Lynch Ltd. and Farugi & Farugi LLP, among other firms.

Blue Buffalo is represented by Martin Flumenbaum and Robert A. Atkins of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Steven A. Zalesin, Adeel A. Mangi and Sean H. Murray of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.

Purina is represented by Carmine R. Zarlenga, Richard M. Assmus and Kristine M. Young of Mayer Brown LLP and David A. Roodman of Bryan Cave LLP.

The Blue Buffalo Pet Food Class Action MDL is In re: Blue Buffalo Company Ltd., Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, MDL No. 2562, in the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

UPDATE: Blue Buffalo has announced that it will pay $32 million to settle the pet food class action lawsuits.

UPDATE 2: On Jan. 11, 2018, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks in the mail from the Blue Buffalo pet food ingredients class action settlement worth as much as $736.54. Congratulations to everyone who filed a claim and got PAID!