Motion Supports False Advertising Case Against Filippo Berio Olive Oil

Summary

The false adver­tis­ing case against Filippo Berio Olive Oil dis­trib­u­tors Salov North America Corp. and Italfoods, Inc. remains unre­solved, with a recent motion sup­port­ing the class cer­ti­fi­ca­tion claim filed by the plain­tiff, Rohini Kumar, fol­low­ing Salov’s attempt to dis­miss the law­suit based on lack of evi­dence that the plain­tiff had pur­chased their olive oil. The case revolves around the inter­pre­ta­tion of the label state­ment ​“Imported from Italy,” with Kumar argu­ing that the phrase mis­led con­sumers into believ­ing the olive oil was made entirely from Italian olives, while Salov main­tains that the term ​“imported” sim­ply means ​“shipped out of” and does not imply the ori­gin of the olives used in the prod­uct.

Two years after a false adver­tis­ing case was filed against Salov North America Corp. and Italfoods, Inc., the dis­trib­u­tors of Filippo Berio Olive Oil, the case is nowhere near­ing clo­sure as the lat­est motion to sup­port the class cer­ti­fi­ca­tion claim that the com­pany prac­ticed false adver­tis­ing was filed last week.

The motion by Rohini Kumar, the plain­tiff, was in response to Salov’s motion to dis­miss the class action law­suit filed in March 2016, which included a state­ment that the plain­tiff could not prove that she had even pur­chased a bot­tle of their olive oil.

At the root of the case is the state­ment ​“Imported from Italy” on the label of Filippo Berio olive oil. The com­pany said there was no evi­dence that con­sumers of the olive oil or the plain­tiff her­self had mis­in­ter­preted ​“imported from Italy” to mean that the Filippo Berio olive oil was only made from Italian olives.

The word ​“imported” in com­mon usage means ​“shipped out of,” accord­ing to the expla­na­tion pro­vided by Salov, which, they point out was Kumar’s own inter­pre­ta­tion of the word as well. They counter that this fact in itself defeats the claim filed by her against their com­pany.

In her response, Kumar stated that she under­stood the term ​“imported from Italy” on the Filippo Berio Olive Oil label to mean that the olive oil was made from olives grown, crushed, bot­tled, and shipped from Italy.

In a state­ment sup­port­ing her claim for class cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, Kumar fur­ther went on to say, ​“while Salov argues that the dic­tio­nary def­i­n­i­tion of ​‘imported from’ sup­ports it, there will still need to be a class-wide deci­sion of whether the phrase is likely to mis­lead rea­son­able con­sumers.”

In an attempt to have the case dis­missed, Salov North America also raised ques­tions about the lead plaintiff’s acquain­tance with a mem­ber of her coun­sel, her char­ac­ter and even whether she pur­chased a bot­tle of the olive oil to begin with.

In the motion, Kumar main­tained her acquain­tance with the coun­sel and her char­ac­ter did not influ­ence or affect the case.

The 29-page law­suit was filed on May 23, 2014 against Salov North America Corp and Italfoods inc. ​“for vio­la­tions of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, false adver­tis­ing, unfair trade prac­tices, breach of con­tract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair deal­ing, and fraud, deceit and/or mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion.”

In an ear­lier hear­ing, Kumar dropped the charges of false adver­tis­ing claims for includ­ing ​“extra vir­gin” on the label to focus the class action on the ​“imported from Italy” claim.

Filippo Berio, imported by Salov North America Corp., based in New Jersey, is the third-largest brand of olive oil sold in the United States, with sales of $137.4 mil­lion in 2015.

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