Are State-Law Claims For Violating Federal Food Labeling Law Preempted?

The federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act ("FDCA")—along with the implementing regulations promulgated by the FDA—sets out a detailed national standard for much of what appears on food and beverage labeling. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 301, et seq.; 21 C.F.R. §§ 101, et seq.; Pom Wonderful LLC v. Coca-Cola Co., 679 F.3d 1170, 1175 (9th Cir. 2012). This national labeling law expressly preempts states from enacting different requirements for labels, including requirements imposed by courts under the guise of redressing a "misleading" or "fraudulent" label. 21 U.S.C. § 343-1; Turek v. Gen. Mills, Inc., 662 F.3d 423, 426 (7th Cir. 2011).

Preemption under the FDCA served as a bulwark against the first wave of false advertising consumer class actions against the food and beverage industry. Most of those complaints essentially attempted to impose state-law labeling requirements that differed from the federal requirements, and courts therefore dismissed the claims as expressly preempted. See, e.g., Turek, supra; Carrea v. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc. (pdf), 475 Fed. App'x 113 (9th Cir. 2012).

In response, the plaintiffs' bar adapted by refocusing class action litigation on labeling statements that they asserted were not covered by a federal requirement. The hundreds of cases challenging "natural" labeling statements are an example. In most respects, FDA has declined to regulate the use of the term "natural" on food and beverage labels, claiming that, "[f]rom a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer a product of the earth." No federal requirement, no preemption of the state-law consumer claims, plaintiffs say.

Moreover, in the last 16 months, the plaintiffs' bar has debuted a new theory that it hopes will allow them to evade preemption. They rely on California's wholesale incorporation of the FDCA's labeling law into the law of California. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 110100. Alleged violations of the FDCA are thus transformed into violations of California's Sherman Food Drug and Cosmetic Law. And violations of the Sherman law, in turn, may be alleged as predicate acts in support of claims for violation of California's consumer protection laws, including the Unfair Competition Law (a/k/a Section 17200). Plaintiffs argue that because state law imposes identical requirements to the federal requirements (indeed, the same FDCA requirements), liability under...