Whole Foods ‘Hypoallergenic’ Labels Class Action Gets Trimmed

A federal judge dramatically trimmed a Whole Foods class action lawsuit alleging the grocer mislabels certain products as hypoallergenic by dismissing multiple defendants, claims, and products from the complaint.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler ended up removing all but one Whole Foods subsidiary from the hypoallergenic class action lawsuit. The court’s decision follows a defendant request to dismiss claims against the natural grocer.

Judge Beeler dismissed claims against numerous defendants including Whole Foods Market Inc., Whole Foods Market Services Inc., and Whole Foods Market Group Inc., finding that the defendants did not fall under the court’s jurisdiction.

The court found that only Whole Foods Market California Inc. fell within the court’s jurisdiction and left claims regarding the subsidiary.

“The plaintiffs do not establish that WFMI, WFM Services, of WFM Group purposefully directed any of their activities or consummated some transaction with California or a California resident or performed some act by which they purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conducting activities in California,” Judge Beeler wrote.

The court also dismissed allegations brought by plaintiff Abigail Starr, a New York resident, finding that she was not sufficiently connected to the remaining California Whole Foods subsidiary.

“Given that Ms. Starr alleges only that she bought products in New York and alleges only that WFM California operates stores in Northern California, it does not appear that Ms. Starr pleads a plausible claim against WFM California,” the motion states.

Judge Beeler further trimmed two products from the class action lawsuit after Whole Foods claimed that the products’ labels do not say “hypoallergenic” and instead say “independent lab results show this gentle formula is hypoallergenic and noncomedogenic.”

The grocer argues that the plaintiffs do not claim that Whole Foods falsified lab results, so the products are not misleading.

“The defendants cite no cases that support their argument that adding the words ‘independent lab results show this [product] is’ before the word ‘hypoallergenic’ somehow renders their representation less misleading if [as sufficiently alleged here] the product is in fact not hypoallergenic,” Judge Beeler wrote. “If anything, saying that the ‘hypoallergenic’ representation is based on lab results may make it more misleading, not less.”

The court kept intact plaintiff Shosha Kellman’s claims of violation of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, false advertising law, unfair competition law, and breach of express warranty.

Kellman filed the Whole Foods class action in November 2017, alleging that Whole Foods deceptively labeled their products as hypoallergenic in order to charge a higher price and attract buyers.

Following Judge Beeler’s dismissal, plaintiffs have 14 days to file an amended complaint after which their claims can be reconsidered.

Plaintiffs are represented by Stephanie R. Tatar of Tatar Law Firm APC; Yvette Golan of The Golan Firm; James A. Francis and David A. Searles of Francis & Mailman PC; and Samuel J. Strauss of Turke & Strauss LLP.

The Whole Foods Hypoallergenic Class Action Lawsuit is Kellman, et al. v. Whole Foods Market Inc., et al., Case No. 3:17­-cv-­06584, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On March 29, 2019, Whole Foods must face a class action lawsuit claiming that the market sells household and body-care products labeled as hypoallergenic that actually contain allergens.