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UPDATE: Aurora Organic Dairy has reached a $7.5 million class action lawsuit settlement!
Dairy consumers are seeing their glass half full this week after a federal appeals court reinstated their class action lawsuit against the largest U.S. provider of store-brand organic milk over claims they falsely labeled their milk as organic. Also named in the class action lawsuit are Target, Wal-Mart and other major retailers who sold the mislabeled milk to consumers.
Wednesday’s ruling means a lower court must hear claims that Aurora Organic Dairy’s milk was deceptively marketed as coming from small farms with open pastures and from cows fed organic vegan diets. Aurora sold the milk under store-branded labels at major retailers, including Target, Wal-Mart, Wild Oats (now owned by Whole Foods Market), Costco and Safeway.
Consumers in 40 states filed 19 separate class actions in 2007 after the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed suspending or revoking Aurora’s organic milk certification after it found the company “willfully” violated 14 different federal organic regulations, including multiple cases of non-organic cows being used to produce organic milk. Aurora never lost its certification, however, and settled the dispute several months later by agreeing, among other things, to retire or remove some of its allegedly non-organic cows.
A federal judicial panel consolidated the 19 class actions in 2008, but the consolidated class action lawsuit was blocked in 2009 when a court found that state laws attacking Aurora’s organic certification were preempted. The federal appeals court ruled this week, however, that state laws governing marketing were not.
“Retail stores must be truthful in the representations about their store-brand food products, and consumer should be able to pursue litigation if those statements are untrue,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer.
The lawsuit alleges the milk cartons of the following store brands marketed their contents as organic when they were not: Aurora’s “High Meadow” brand, Costco’s “Kirkland” brand, Safeway’s “O Organics” brand, Target’s “Archer Farms” brand, Wal-Mart’s “Great Value” brand and Wild Oats’ store brand. At least one of the stores, Target, no longer carries Aurora milk.
The dairy consumers are seeking unspecified compensatory, statutory and punitive damages for having allegedly bought “organic” milk that wasn’t really organic. The case is In re: Aurora Dairy Corp Organic Milk Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 09-2762.
Updated September 18th, 2012
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2 thoughts onOrganic Milk Class Action Reinstated
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HighMedow 2% Milk from Sam’s is upsetting stomach. Milk never does this to Me. Bar Code number is 50221 00135 and is good to March 20th. Other numbers at top 2012 11:39 2A4F2 08-29 other carton info – Coker 3251 F – 34149-P1235 – 34149P-P0362 – 34149-P2727 -34149-P0096 This is 50mg Omega-3 DHA & EPA per serving.