Aveeno Active Naturals Buyers Win Class Cert. in False Labeling Lawsuit

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A federal judge has granted class certification for three states’ worth of Class Members in an Aveeno Active Naturals class action lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román granted the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification against defendant Johnson & Johnson, with modifications that significantly reduce the number of Aveeno Active Naturals products at issue.

Named plaintiffs Michael Goldemberg, Annie Le and Howard Petlack sought certification of three Classes – one Class each from New York, California and Florida – who purchased any of 90 different Aveeno Active Naturals products.

Judge Román determined the plaintiffs’ standing extends only to the 15 products they actually purchased and whose labels have not been significantly changed since the purchase. Each of the certified Classes will be broken into subclasses that correspond to the applicable products.

In the same order, Judge Román denied Johnson & Johnson’s motion to exclude the preliminary report on damages prepared by the plaintiffs’ expert witness. J&J argued that the expert’s report was unreliable, and that with or without that report, the plaintiffs couldn’t demonstrate Class-wide damages because their model for damages isn’t consistent with their theory of liability.

Judge Román disagreed, finding that damages are measureable on a Class-wide basis. He also certified an injunctive Class for the purpose of seeking an injunction prohibiting the allegedly deceptive Aveeno Active Naturals labeling.

In his original class action lawsuit, Goldemberg claimed Johnson & Johnson created a false impression that Aveeno Active Naturals products contained only natural ingredients.

In fact, he claims these products contain “unnatural, synthetic ingredients” like glycerine, cetyl alcohol and sodium hydroxide, rendering their “Active Naturals” labeling false and misleading.

This allegedly false label tricks consumers into paying a premium for what they’re led to think is an entirely natural product, Goldemberg argues.

J&J countered that the Aveeno Active Naturals label is not misleading. The company says it’s undisputed that each of the products at issue does contain at least one natural ingredient.

Therefore the labeling at issue, which represents that some, not all, of the ingredients are natural, is accurate, truthful and would not deceive a reasonable consumer, J&J argues. The company says that to assume a cosmetic does not contain synthetic ingredients is to “disregard ‘well-known facts of life.’”

The Aveeno Active Naturals class action lawsuit survived a motion to dismiss in March 2014. On that motion, Judge Román trimmed only the plaintiff’s unjust enrichment claim from the action, reasoning that it was merely duplicative of his other claims.

Goldemberg’s claims for breach of warranty and violations of New York’s General Business Law were allowed to proceed.

Le and Petlack joined Goldemberg as plaintiffs in August 2014, proposing to represent Class Members from California and Florida in claims under those states’ consumer protection laws.

Aveeno consumers are represented by attorneys Todd S. Gerber of Finkelstein Blankinship Frei-Pearson & Garber LLP and Kim E. Richman of the Richman Law Group.

The Aveeno Active Naturals Class Action Lawsuit is Goldemberg, et al. v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc., Case No. 7:13-cv-03073, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

UPDATE: On May 26, 2017, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $6.75 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it deceptively marketed its Aveeno Active Naturals line.

UPDATE 2: The Aveeno Active Naturals Class Action Settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 3: On Dec. 4, 2018, Top Class Action readers started to receive settlement checks worth as much as $168 from an Aveeno Naturals class action settlement.