Do FDA Regulations Preempt Consumer Fraud Class Actions?
Posted by Zach Lowe Van Beckwith of Baker Botts acknowledged that momentum might not be on his side as he argued Wednesday on behalf of Snapple that a consumer fraud lawsuit against the beverage company should be tossed out under the doctrine of federal preemption, according to the Legal Intelligencer, an Am Law Daily sibling publication. A federal district court dismissed the case in 2007, ruling, in part, that the Food and Drug Administration’s labeling regulations preempt consumer fraud suits focused on misleading labels, the paper says. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit appeared to embrace the notion that preemption is a less powerful doctrine in the wake of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Wyeth v. Levine this year, according to the Intelligencer. “A lot has happened,” Judge D. Brooks Smith said to Beckwith, according to the paper.”Much has happened, I agree,” Beckwith replied. He went on to argue that the issue in Wyeth–warning l
