Case Against Barilla Pasta Not Made in Italy to Proceed

[JEDI]

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"Italy's No. 1 brand of pasta" isn't as Italian as it sounds.

The plaintiffs allege they opted to buy Barilla spaghetti and angel hair pasta because they thought they were getting a genuine Italian-made product, made with ingredients from Italy.

...headquartered in Illinois, and its pasta products are manufactured in New York and Iowa, using ingredients sourced outside of Italy.


different than Texas Pete's hot sauce lawsuit?

 

[BoomerD]

Regardless of where it's made...is it indeed "Italy's No. 1 brand of pasta?"

Barilla is our normal brand. We've never were under the assumption it was made in Italy...in fact, I probably wouldn't buy it if it was. I prefer the (slightly) more stringent US food safety laws than those of most foreign countries.

 

[brianmanahan]

cue the 'mille luna mille onde'

 

[IronWing]

Wait until they hear about Ragu, "That's Japanese!"

 

[Torn Mind]

This decision is not after a full trial on the merits, but rather at an early stage in a civil proceeding.

It was a motion to dismiss in which some counts of a violation of law stood while the request for injunction was dismissed with leave to amend.

B. Rule 12(b)(6)
A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) tests the legal sufficiency of the claims alleged in
the complaint. See Parks Sch. of Bus., Inc. v. Symington, 51 F.3d 1480, 1484 (9th Cir. 1995).
When reviewing a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, the court must “accept as true all
of the factu al allegations contained in the complaint,” Erickson, 551 U.S. at 94 (2007) (citation
omitted), and may dismiss a claim “only where there is no cognizable legal theory” or there is an
absence of “sufficient factual matter to state a facially plausible claim to relief.”

A “quintessential injury -in- fact” can occur when a plaintiff alleges that they “spent money
that, absent defendants’ actions, they would not have spent.” Maya v. Centex Corp., 658 F.3d
1060, 1069 (9th Cir. 2011). That is precisely what Plaintiffs allege here. Their allegations are
sufficient to establish an economic injury for purposes of constitutional standing. 3

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Barilla-pasta-ruling.pdf

 

[Charmonium]

Summary judgement, dismissed. You will not profit from being a dufus.

Just ignore me. It's not like I've got my finger on the carotid artery of the rotting corpse that is America.

 

[JEDI]

Summary judgement, dismissed. You will not profit from being a dufus.

shall not profit for being a dufus yet the summary judgement was dismissed.
sounds contradictory?

 

[pmv]

Brings to mind Lionel T. Hutz's lawsuit over "The Neverending Story".

 

[Charmonium]

Summary judgement can be awarded to either side. Here's the first hit if you google it

Purpose:
What is the purpose of a summary judgment
While a summary judgment motion is not a substitute for trial, it is a tool that allows courts to weed out cases that do not need a trial to be resolved. It also allows the court to simplify and streamline the case so that trial is more efficient and focused on the areas of actual dispute.

 

[JEDI]

Summary judgement can be awarded to either side. Here's the first hit if you google it

and how does this dismissal translate into 'You will not profit from being a dufus'?

or are you saying Barilla is the dufus?

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Courts need to be far more aggressive in simply rejecting nonsense suits and sanctioning 'lawyers' that file them.

 

[Charmonium]

and how does this dismissal translate into 'You will not profit from being a dufus'?

or are you saying Barilla is the dufus?

I hope not. The plaintiff is clearly the dufus.

The problem with summary judgement is that it's a pretty high bar to clear. SJ implies that there are no issues of fact (when viewed in way most beneficial to the plaintiff).

So what does victory for the defendant look like in such a case? They're thrown out of court.

Courts need to be far more aggressive in simply rejecting nonsense suits and sanctioning 'lawyers' that file them.

Too true, but see above. If a plaintiff alleges facts that state a cause of action, you're stuck with letting the case proceed.

edit: The other part about malicious prosecution or abuse of process is that those are also very high bars.

 

[Brainonska511]

Courts need to be far more aggressive in simply rejecting nonsense suits and sanctioning 'lawyers' that file them.

It is incredibly difficult to clear the hurdles put up by tort "reform" advocates. Just because you hear about something in its early stages in a newspaper doesn't mean it's anywhere close to being likely to succeed if it even makes it to trial.

 

[Torn Mind]

Summary judgment can be awarded to either side. Here's the first hit if you google it

Summary judgment, as I understand it, is something where there is no alleged dispute of material fact alleged in the pleadings. Then the judge can grant something based on the facts.

Dismissals can be appealed to an extent for review.

This isn't summary judgment; Judge Ryu explicitly states it's a motion to dismiss based on federal Rule 12, not Rule 56.

 

[Torn Mind]

Courts need to be far more aggressive in simply rejecting nonsense suits and sanctioning 'lawyers' that file them.

You mean overaggressively denying the right to recoup losses without citing proper points and authorities and following fair procedures?

 

[JM Aggie08]

People need more important things to worry about.

 

[IBMJunkman]

Don’t have a box in my pantry. Does the box have a ’Made in’ statement on it? To me that would trump any advertising on the box.

 

[Captante]

Wait until they hear about Ragu, "That's Japanese!"

Ragu (the US national-brand) is disgusting and flavorless aside from being very bitter/sour even for a mass-produced pasta sauce.

Might as well serve egg-noodles and ketchup!

Far as Barilla pasta is concerned, I don't care where it's made I only care how it tastes or (in the case of Barilla specifically) I care that it has a significantly wider "window of opportunity" to get that perfect "al dente" texture then most pasta that goes from done to mush in under a minute.

Having said that, my favorite traditional semolina "dry" national pasta brand is DeCecco but my favorite pasta to make/eat is Barilla's "Protein-pasta" which consists largely of chickpeas but still manages to get that "consistency" perfect every time. (note however the package is NOT a full lb which sucks)

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

There are NO losses here. No one, not a single soul has been harmed in any way. The clerk should have tossed this case without ever filing it. The 'lawyers' involved should be facing disbarment.

If anyone at all could claim harm it MIGHT be the Italian government.

 

[JM Aggie08]

KILL THEM ALL

 

[K1052]

Thinking about it I guess I always just assumed it was an Italian brand made in the US, never actually checked for the label. IIRC it usually commands only a slight premium over other brands so I didn't assume it was imported. Just like a lot of foreign beers are brewed in the US for the US market.

 

[Torn Mind]

There are NO losses here. No one, not a single soul has been harmed in any way. The clerk should have tossed this case without ever filing it. The 'lawyers' involved should be facing disbarment.

If anyone at all could claim harm it MIGHT be the Italian government.

Law applies broadly and to matters that meet the logical conditions, no matter what "feelings and intuition" say is trivial.

Advertising is an act that induces the customer to buy.
False advertising means the act of inducement employed some form of deception.

Class actions are there precisely for those matters in which the individual's "damage" is small but can add up to enough collectively.

If the matter is in a gray area, it is better for the future if matters are allowed to stand in the early part of the process.

Ryan Clarkson — Clarkson Law Firm

Ryan is the founder and managing partner of Clarkson Law Firm, delivering justice for the underserved, the underprivileged, and the underdog.

clarksonlawfirm.com

Shireen Clarkson — Clarkson Law Firm

Shireen is a partner and shareholder at Clarkson Law Firm, and co-leads the firm’s class action litigation team.

clarksonlawfirm.com

Facts that the firm is located in Malibu, California with a long history and experience in class-actions and Judge Donna Ryu is appointed by the more "sane" party(at least to people here) by a well-respected President.

 

[Captante]

There are NO losses here. No one, not a single soul has been harmed in any way. The clerk should have tossed this case without ever filing it. The 'lawyers' involved should be facing disbarment.

If anyone at all could claim harm it MIGHT be the Italian government.

Calling this case and others like it "fraud" is quite a stretch, however saying that it's NOT false-advertising is pretty weak too.

If I claim my dish is made with ITALIAN pasta and present it as a "selling-point", said pasta really needs to be made in Italy for the claim to be accurate and legal. (even if it tastes exactly the same)

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I didn't stutter. NO ONE HAS LOST ANYTHING HERE. This is not like false claims of medical benefits. This is not buying a certain amount and getting less in contents or weight.

This is nothing but creative/artistic boasting.

 

[Captante]

Definition of "False Advertising". (Merriam-Webster)

The crime or tort of publishing, broadcasting, or otherwise publicly distributing an advertisement that contains an untrue, misleading, or deceptive representation or statement which was made knowingly or recklessly and with the intent to promote the sale of property, goods, or services to the public.

"Harm" being done is not a requirement to qualify as false-advertising.

HOWEVER even if it was, competing companies that didn't lie openly in their advertising in order to appear more "authentic" could easily argue they were damaged by lost sales.