News in Brief: March 18, 2016 – Jessica Alba, Starbucks and More

Today’s news brings us a Johnson & Johnson prosthetic hip verdict, a Starbucks under-filled latte lawsuit, a false advertising class action against Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. and the arbitration of a Verizon “supercookie” class action.

First off, Johnson & Johnson’s $497.6 million verdict. The verdict ends the second bellwether trial in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) that claims the company’s Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implants allowed metal debris to enter the bloodstream, resulting in swelling, pain and a condition known as metallosis. The amount is steep – but it’s not yet final, as the judge still needs to approve it.

The trial went the way of the plaintiffs this time, but the first one ended in favor of the defendants. It will take more time and more trials before anyone can start to see a trend for the rest of the 8,000 cases in the MDL.

Next, we have Starbucks. Customers are claiming that Starbucks has been under-filling its lattes by at least 25 percent since it standardized its recipes in 2009. According to the proposed class action, Starbucks violated California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. But, if it’s true, the real crime is depriving the people of that caffeine-enriched nectar.

Speaking of alleged dishonesty (I’m sorry. Transitions are hard and I only had 75 percent of a latte this morning), Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. is being sued for advertising its cleaning products as free of harmful chemicals when independent tests have shown otherwise. The cleaning products are said to contain sodium lauryl sulfate, which, aside from sounding exactly like a harsh chemical should, is a known skin irritant.

And finally, there’s Verizon. A California federal judge agreed that a case claiming Verizon used “supercookies” to track its subscribers’ online habits couldn’t move forward due to pesky clause in the company’s contracts. The case has now been sent to arbitration, meaning that if anyone wants to sue Verizon, they will have to resolve their claims through arbitration and not by way of a class action.