A federal court recently decertified a class action filed on behalf of  juice buyers, recognizing the grave ascertainability problems in the case alleging that the beverage maker misleadingly advertised its drink’s health benefits. See In re Pom Wonderful LLC Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., No. 2:10-ml-2199-DDP-RZ (C.D. Cal. 3/25/14).

Back in 2012, the court had certified a damages class comprised of all persons who purchased a Pom Wonderful 100% juice product between October 2005 and September 2010. After the  completion of discovery, Pom moved to decertify the class, in light of the facts developed and in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 133 S. Ct. 1426 (2013). On a motion for decertification, as at the certification stage, the burden to demonstrate that the requirements of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and (b) are met lies with the party advocating certification. E.g., Marlo v. United Parcel Serv. Inc., 639 F.3d 942, 947 (9th Cir. 2011).

The court noted that the Ninth Circuit has adopted a rather narrow reading of Comcast, which holds that, under rigorous analysis, “plaintiffs must be able to show that their damages stemmed from the defendant’s actions that created the legal liability.” Leyva v. Medline Indus., Inc., 716 F.3d 510, 514 (9th Cir. 2013). Thus, the court proceeded to examine plaintiffs’ damages models and the relationship of those models to the plaintiffs’ legal theories. Plaintiffs’ expert advanced two damages models. The “Full Refund” model concluded that consumers spent $450 million on Pom’s 100% pomegranate juice and juice blends during the class period, and that class damages are 100% of the amount paid, or $450 million.  Defendant argued that the Full Refund model was invalid because it failed to account for any value consumers received. Even putting aside any potential health benefits, defendant argued, consumers still received value in the form of hydration, vitamins, and minerals.  The court agreed.  The California consumer acts authorize a trial court to grant restitution to private litigants asserting claims under those statutes. Colgan v. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc.,135 Cal.App.4th 663, 694 (2006). “The difference between what the plaintiff paid
and the value of what the plaintiff received is a proper measure of restitution.” In re Vioxx Class Cases, 180 Cal.App.4th 116, 131 (2009). “A party seeking restitution must generally return any
benefit that it has received.” Dunkin v. Boskey, 82 Cal.App.4th 171, 198 (2000).  Since the model did not account for this, it did not comport with Comcast.

The second or “Price Premium” model assumed that, absent the alleged misrepresentations, “demand for Pom would have been less and the Pom market price would have been lower.” The Price Premium model quantified alleged damages “by comparing the price of Pom with other refrigerated juices of the same size.”  This model yielded a damage calculation of “about $290 million.”  The parties agreed that the Price Premium model depended upon a “fraud on the market” theory. Plaintiffs essentially asserted (1) that a presumption of reliance dependent upon defendant’s alleged material misrepresentations establishes the existence of a fraud on the
entire juice market, (2) that because of that fraud on the market, every consumer who purchased defendant’s juices was similarly damaged, regardless of motivation or satisfaction, and (3) damages could therefore be measured on a class-wide basis. But, the court was not aware of any authority applying a fraud on the market theory to this type of consumer action. (It’s a securities thing!)  Putting that issue aside, a plaintiff alleging a fraud on the market must show that the relevant market is efficient. See Smilovits v. First Solar, Inc., 295 F.R.D. 423, 429 (D. Ariz. 2013). This court was not persuaded that the market for defendant’s high-end refrigerated juice products operates efficiently.

Third, whether the entire class can be said to have relied upon the alleged  misrepresentations for liability purposes, this did not necessarily speak to the adequacy of a damages model. Plaintiffs must be able to show that their damages stemmed from the defendant’s actions that created the legal liability.  Plaintiff’s expert made no attempt upon a sound methodology to explain how defendant’s alleged misrepresentations caused any amount of damages. Instead, the expert  simply observed that Pom’s juices were more expensive than certain other juices. Rather than
answer the critical question why that price difference existed, or to what extent it was a result of Pom’s alleged actions, the expert simply assumed that 100% of that price difference was attributable to the alleged misrepresentations. Rather than draw any link between Pom’s actions and the price difference between the juice average benchmark price and average Pom prices, the Price Premium model simply calculated what the price difference was. This damages “model” did not comport with Comcast’s requirement that class-wide damages be tied to a legal theory.

The other basis for the decision was ascertainability.  In situations where purported class members purchase an inexpensive product for a variety of reasons, and are unlikely to retain receipts or other transaction records, class actions may present such daunting administrative challenges that class treatment is not feasible.  See, e.g., In re Phenylpropanolamine Prods., 214 F.R.D. 614, 620 (W.D. Wash. 2003) (describing critical manageability problems concerning sales of a three dollar medication, despite possibility of fluid recovery); Sethavanish v. ZonePerfect Nutrition Co., 2014 WL 580696 at *5 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 13, 2014) (denying certification because proposed class of nutrition bar purchasers would not be ascertainable).  Here, plaintiffs acknowledged that, based on the volume of product sold, every adult in the United States is a potential class member. Realistically, the class included at least ten to fifteen million purchasers. These millions of consumers paid only a few dollars per bottle, and likely made their purchases for a variety of reasons, observed the court. Few, if any, consumers were likely to have retained receipts during the class period, which closed years before the filing of this action. This case therefore fell well toward the unascertainable end of the spectrum. Here, at the close of discovery and despite plaintiffs’ efforts, there was no way to reliably determine who purchased defendant’s products or when they did so.

Class decertified.