For the second time, a federal court has rejected a complaint against defendants on behalf of a putative class, alleging defendants misled consumers by selling apple juice and applesauce products with the representation “Natural” and/or “All Natural Ingredients.” Plaintiffs asserted five causes of action, all revolving around the claim the products contained trace, legal amounts of a pesticide residue. The court granted a motion to dismiss, and since further amended complaints would be futile, it dismissed the amended complaint WITHOUT leave to amend. Hawyuan Yu v. Dr Pepper Snapple Grp., Inc., No. 18-CV-06664-BLF, 2020 WL 5910071, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 6, 2020).
Plaintiff’s first class action was dismissed, and in his amended complaint, he added a 2015 Consumer Reports Survey and a 2019 study that he claimed showed a majority of consumers understand “natural” to mean a product has no “toxic pesticides.”