Trader Joe’s Will Pay $1.3M to Settle Underfilled Canned Tuna Class Action

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A Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit regarding underfilled tuna cans has ended in a $1.3 million settlement agreement.

The Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit was filed by consumers who claimed that they bought 5-ounce tuna cans from the company only to discover when they got home that those cans were underfilled.

The payout for the proposed Class Members in the Trader Joe’s canned tuna class action settlement amounts to $29 per claim.

The Class Members suggested that the court provide preliminary approval since that per-payout claim seemed reasonable given the cost of each can of tuna purchased by those in the Class.

The Trader Joe’s mulidristrict litigation is a combination of several class action lawsuits filed in California and New York in 2016.

The consumers who launched the Trader Joe’s canned tuna class action lawsuits allege that the company was purposefully not filling their 5-ounce tuna cans to the weight standards established at the federal level.

One of the initial Trader Joe’s class action lawsuits came from consumer Amy Joseph, who argued that the grocer was guilty of breach of warranty and fraud due to the failure to meet FDA proper weight filling standards.

Several other similar Trader Joe’s tuna class action lawsuit were filed around that time in a few different states, all of which were based on the same allegations.

In November 2016, those claims were consolidated into one Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit, at which point the grocer was granted a dismissal. That opportunity allowed the plaintiffs to create an amended complaint which occurred in June 2017.

At that point, Trader Joe’s continued to argue for a dismissal by alleging that the Trader Joe’s canned tuna class action lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs referred to a now-outdated standard and that their labels had no reference to previous weight standards.

In October 2017, the majority of the claims were dismissed, but the claims filed by California consumers were still active.

Negotiations occurred between Trader Joe’s and those parties at that point in time, leading to the final settlement of $1.3 million.

Consumers who spoke on behalf of the California Class Members say that this is a great outcome and that the amount provide was appropriate given the possible costs and time commitments of going to trial.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The Trader Joe’s customers are represented by L. Timothy Fisher and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Trader Joe’s Underfilled Tuna Cans Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Trader Joe’s Tuna Litigation, Case No. 2:16-cv-01371, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.