SAN FRANCISCO – A consumer who alleged Whole Foods Market mislabeled some of its private-brand household and body care products as hypoallergenic has been granted leave to file an amended complaint.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an eight-page ruling on Dec. 21 allowing a motion to file an amended complaint in the class action lawsuit filed by Shosha Kellman against the retailer.
The court granted a motion allowing Kellman to file a fourth amended complaint and also granted a motion to seal, and denied the defendant's motion to dismiss a third amended complaint as well.
Kellman filed a class action suit against Whole Foods regarding allegations of errors in labeling its line of household and body care products, claiming they contain allergenic substances, even as they were labeled as "hypoallergenic."
As stated in the ruling, "the court permitted Ms. Kellman to take certain jurisdictional discovery of the defendants," and she filed an opposition to the defendant's motion to dismiss right after.
For that motion, per the ruling, "Kellman attached as exhibits several documents that she received in discovery that the defendants had marked 'confidential' or 'highly confidential' pursuant to the protective order in this case."
She also filed an administrative motion to seal portions of the brief that discussed the documents.
"The court granted in part and provisionally denied the motions to seal. With respect to the denial, the court held that the defendants had not sufficiently shown that the materials to be sealed were trade secrets or otherwise entitled to protection under the law and that the proposed sealing and redactions were not narrowly tailored," the ruling said.
The court also allowed Whole Foods and other defendants to file a supplemental motion regarding the sealing of the documents.
In her ruling, Beeler stated that "the defendants have shown good cause, or in the alternative, compelling reasons, to seal that paragraph and portions of the exhibits, as narrowed in the defendants’ supplemental statement," allowing the defendants to seal the exhibits submitted by Kellman.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 17-cv-06584-LB