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Class v. Consumer Product Company

September 2010

Sedgwick obtained an adjudicated dismissal in a class action case for our hair care products manufacturer and big box retailer clients. The case arose out of an "exposé" by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which issued a report that children's bath products contain chemicals that can cause adverse health effects.  The report did not suggest that the amount of these chemicals had caused any actual harm to anyone, and the plaintiffs made no such allegation.  Rather, the plaintiffs asserted that the manufacturers failed to disclose material information that would have caused them to avoid purchasing the products. They sought disgorgement of revenues and/or a refund of their purchase price. Sedgwick successfully argued that the plaintiffs had suffered no harm or injury and therefore did not have standing and failed to state a claim. The dismissals Sedgwick attorneys obtained in similar cases in New Jersey and Illinois built momentum in favor of this ruling, which was heard in federal court in California.