Class Action Roundup – Dr. Oz, Target Potty Training Seat, Kayne West, and More

Ty’s on vacation. So, for this week, you are stuck with me bringing you items of only the highest import from across the class action lawsuit universe.

Shall we?

Dr. Oz Stamps Out “Miracle” Diet Supplement Class Action Suit with $5.25 Million Settlement

Tabloid site The Blast reports that television’s most popular (and probably most questionably credentialed) physician Dr. Mehmet Oz has put to rest a class action lawsuit over claims he made on his show that two “miracle” dietary products—Labrada Garcinia Cambogia and Labrada Green Coffee Bean Extract—could help with weight loss. In addition to agreeing to pay class members a $5.25 million settlement, Dr. Oz and co-defendants ZoCo Productions LLC, Harpo Productions Inc., Entertainment Media Ventures Inc. and Sony Pictures Television Inc. have agreed to not re-air the episode of “The Doctor Oz Show” on which the alleged “revolutionary fat buster” supplements were promoted.

The named plaintiffs alleged in their 2016 amended class action that they bought co-defendant and former bodybuilding champion Lee Labrada’s dietary supplements after Dr. Oz gushed about their purported benefits on his show. According to the lawsuit, the pills were “worthless” and lacked any scientific backing regarding their weight loss claims. Dr. Oz and the other defendants admitted to no wrongdoing, according to the settlement documents.

Class members are set to receive $30 for each Labrada product they bought. Those without receipts will unfortunately be limited to receiving a total of $90, the settlement agreement states.

Readers, as you know, we here at ClassAction.org are not attorneys and cannot provide you with any legal advice. We can, however, offer some general life advice: Be wary of what you buy off the television.

We’ll have the settlement website where you can claim your money on our settlements page as soon as it becomes available.

Target, Prince Lionheart Facing Class Action Over Injuries Allegedly Caused by weePOD Basix Potty-Training Seat Cover

Injuries allegedly suffered by at least 15 young boys are at the center of a proposed class action lawsuit filed in Florida against Target, Inc. and Prince Lionheart, Inc., the company that makes the weePOD Basix potty-training seat cover. As reported by NBC Bay Area, the lawsuit alleges “at least 15 toddler boys suffered cuts to their genitals” after using the supposedly defective seat covers. According to the complaint, Prince Lionheart “refuses to recall or warn its customers” that 650,000 circulating weePOD seat covers—many of which the case says are “handed down from family to family”—are defective.

While you can read the graphic details alleged in the lawsuit yourself, the gist of it is the plaintiffs allege their son sustained “permanent damage” after cutting himself on the sharp plastic underside of the “pee shield” of the training seat. The lawsuit says that despite the defendants receiving numerous complaints over the years of the injuries supposedly caused by the weePOD training seat, Prince Lionheart “has a history of ignoring safety defects” while continually misleading consumers when confronted about problems with its potty training device. As for Target’s apparent role in the situation, the plaintiffs allege the company has done nothing to recall older versions of the weePOD training seat and has to date refused to audit Prince Lionheart despite being the device’s sole retailer.

Target is supposedly reviewing the plaintiffs’ allegations, according to a report from The Press Enterprise. The company released a statement, saying, “We take product safety incredibly seriously, are committed to providing safe products to our guests and require our vendors to follow all product safety laws and [Consumer Product Safety Commission] guidelines for the products they sell at Target.”

Women’s Lawsuit Against Microsoft Over Alleged Workplace Discrimination Denied Class Action Status

A September 2015 lawsuit filed by female engineers against Microsoft Corp. over alleged discrimination in the company’s pay and promotion practices has been denied class certification. According to a Bloomberg report, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart issued a sealed order on June 25 denying the class bid, with little explanation. Bloomberg’s Margaret Cronin Fisk wrote that the Seattle judge said the ruling would be kept private until both sides inform him of what needs to be redacted. An appeal from the proposed class of more than 8,630 high-level tech specialists is expected.

At a hearing earlier in June, Judge Robart said the suit had a “fatal” flaw in attempting to depict a uniform corporate policy at Microsoft that showed discrimination in the female engineers’ workplace experiences. This type of “common thread” among members of a proposed class is necessary for a lawsuit to proceed as a class action.

Despite citing recent pro-worker court decisions against Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, the plaintiffs’ case was, in the end, tripped up by a 2011 United States Supreme Court ruling in a gender-bias lawsuit against Walmart that Bloomberg points out has become a roadblock in many employee-filed class actions.

Head over to Bloomberg to read more. 

Staten Island Man Sues Maker of RX Bars Over “Real” Egg White Claims

Chicago Bar Company, LLC—the maker of the RXBAR and RXBAR Kids—has drawn the ire of a Staten Island man who alleges in a proposed class action case that he was misled by the company’s claims that their food bars contain real egg whites as an ingredient.

As do many food ingredient class actions, the plaintiff’s case centers on the marketing and labeling of RXBARs. According to the complaint, the defendant’s marketing message is built around its promotion of “real” ingredients in its food bars while hinting that other companies take to “hiding” unfavorable or artificial ingredients in indecipherable ingredient lists. The ingredient lists for RXBARs are evidently pretty clear-cut:

After delving into, among other aspects, the technical specifics of what eggs are, their general nutritional composition and how eggs whites are often converted to a liquid or powder form depending on the method of consumption, the lawsuit flatly claims the egg whites used by Chicago Bar Company are not real in that they’re essentially not complete eggs. From the complaint:

“Defendant does not utilize egg white powder in its complete form, which would have entitled it to utilize the name ‘egg whites’ to refer to the subject ingredient. 

Instead, defendant utilizes one or more of the egg white fractions, but not the entire egg white, which is not consistent with the requirements that egg whites refer to the liquid egg albumen separated from yolks, adequately treated and modified for its intended purpose (pasteurization to destroy bacteria, whipping aids if necessary).

It is not possible for [RXBARs] to contain ‘egg whites’ as that term is understood by consumers and regulations because the foaming properties of egg whites would limit the ability to blend it with the other ingredients.”

[rubs eyes]

Excuse me, folks. I dozed off there for a second.

SILIVE reporter Tracey Porpora wrote this week that the plaintiff’s attorney has refused to comment on the lawsuit.

American Airlines Agrees to $45M Settlement in Fare Collusion Class Action

American Airlines will pay $45 million to quash antitrust claims that the company colluded with three other airlines to drive up domestic airfares and limit plane capacity. American Airlines’ settlement comes on the heels of a similar $15 million deal reached earlier this year by Southwest, Bloomberg’s Andrew M. Harris and Mary Schlangenstein write. 

The litigation—In re Domestic Airline Travel Antitrust Litigation, 15-mc-1404, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia—alleged that the prices for American, United, Southwest and Delta flights rose drastically despite static consumer demand and the cost of jet fuel, one of the most costly expenditures for airlines, on the decline. The airlines’ executives allegedly assured one another that they would show “capacity discipline” while attempting to further the scheme by keeping in check consumers’ ability to compare prices.

Despite the settlement, American Airlines has admitted to no wrongdoing. The company, through a spokesman, said it agreed to settle because the “costs to defend against antitrust litigation often run into the tens of millions of dollars.”

On a related note, if anyone has any suggestions as to where I can fly to relatively inexpensively for vacation in August, feel free to drop me a note at corrado@classaction.org.

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Apple’s Side of the Story in App Store Antitrust Class Action

The United States Supreme Court on June 18 said it will hear Apple Inc.’s push to sidestep a proposed antitrust class action alleging the company has monopolized the market for iPhone apps, causing consumers to spend more than they would have amid more competition. Reuters writes the Supreme Court will hear Apple’s appeal of a lower court ruling that brought back to life a 2011 proposed class action case centering on commissions Apple receives from App Store purchases. To no one’s surprise, the White House has sided with Apple, according to Reuters’ Andrew Chung, and urged the court to take the case. 

Reuters says that while developers set prices for their apps, Apple collects payments from iPhone users while charging developers a 30 percent commission on each purchase. The plaintiffs claim that as a result, the prices of App Store apps are inflated. How all this shakes out could have wide-reaching ramifications for online marketplaces StubHub, Amazon’s Marketplace and eBay – platforms on which sellers themselves set prices. 

Truth be told, the only apps I pay for are half-priced apps at Applebee’s.

Kayne West, Tidal Must Face Portion of Life of Pablo Class Action, Judge Rules

Rapper Kanye West and Tidal must face parts of a now-trimmed 2016 class action lawsuit that alleges consumers were tricked into subscribing to the Jay Z-owned music streaming service after the defendants claimed it was the only place to hear West’s seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo. A Billboard report says The Life of Pablo popped up on other streaming platforms not even two months after its release.

Billboard reporter Colin Stutz writes that what pushed U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods to allow the suit to move forward, at least in part, was a February 2016 tweet from West, who holds a three-percent ownership stake in Tidal, in which he said the album “will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal.” According to the lawsuit, The Life of Pablo boosted Tidal’s subscribers from one million to three million within ten days of the album’s release.

"These allegations, together with the complaint's description of the business relationship between Mr. West and Tidal, are sufficient to nudge this claim across the line from conceivable to plausible," Judge Woods said. 

In an attempt to dismiss the case, West reportedly argued that The Life of Pablo was “updated and remixed numerous times, with different vocals, lyrics, and arrangements,” making Tidal the only platform on which to hear the original version of the record. 

“Mr. West's argument is tenuous, and certainly does not pass muster in the context of a motion to dismiss,” according to Judge Woods. 

My two cents: just pay for the music you listen to. Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, actual physical CDs and records. If you like something, be willing to pay for it.