Settlement Reached in Fresh Step Cat Litter Class Action Lawsuit

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On Feb. 18, a federal judge approved a joint motion to dismiss a proposed Fresh Step cat litter class action lawsuit against the Clorox Co., after both parties involved in the litigation informed the California court that the plaintiffs had agreed to settle the false advertising claims against the company.

The six named plaintiffs notified U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti they unanimously agreed to dismiss the consolidated Clorox class action lawsuit with prejudice after Clorox reached a deal with them. This Fresh Step settlement news comes just six months after the judge denied the plaintiffs Class certification in this Fresh Step cat litter class action lawsuit for five state-specific subclasses because they were allegedly not ascertainable.

Plaintiffs Megan Sterritt, Kristin Luszcz, Lori Kowalewski, Tina Butler-Furr, Catherine Lenz, and Susan Doyle (all Clorox Fresh Step consumers from the states of California, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Texas) originally filed this Clorox Fresh Step cat litter class action lawsuit in January 2012, alleging Clorox falsely advertised that its carbon-based Fresh Step cat litter was more effective at eliminating odors than other brand-name cat litters, such as those that contain baking soda.

The plaintiffs allege that the Fresh Step cat litter was falsely advertised and misleading because Clorox did not have any evidence to support their claims of product superiority. The crux of the dispute stems from a the product’s packaging, as well as a series of Clorox commercials aired in 2010, which advertised the superior effectiveness of Clorox Fresh Step’s carbon-based cat litter.

These commercials stemmed another Clorox lawsuit filed by competing baking soda based cat litter manufacturer Church & Dwight Co. Inc., who claimed they conducted their own research which disproved Clorox’s assertions of carbon cat litter superiority. The two companies have since settled their claims and Clorox agreed to discontinue the cat litter ads in question.

While some claims had been dismissed by Judge Conti in August of the same year, the Clorox class action lawsuit had been left intact to represent all persons and/or entities that purchased Fresh Step cat litter within the United States from January 2008 to the present.

However, in July 2014, the judge ruled that there was no feasible way to identify Fresh Step Class Members of the proposed state subclasses, as Judge Conti concluded most consumers were not likely to keep their cat litter purchase receipts and were also unlikely to remember the dates when they purchased Fresh Step cat litter. In the wake of this court ruling, the plaintiffs and Clorox negotiated a deal and informed the court of their intent to file a stipulation of dismissal earlier this year.

Details of the proposed Clorox Fresh Step cat litter class action settlement were not immediately available or included in the joint stipulation of dismissal. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive automatic notifications when this article is updated.

The plaintiffs are represented by Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, Labaton Sucharow LLP, Shephard Finkelman Miller & Shah LLP and Faruqi & Faruqi LLP.

The Clorox Fresh Step Cat Litter Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Clorox Consumer Litigation, Case No. 3:12-cv-00280, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.