Lawsuit

A judge ruled in favor of the Federal Trade Commission this week, finding that Pom Wonderful, makers of the pomegranate juice in the curvy bottle, made inflated claims about the healthy properties of its product. Without the evidence to back up assertions that it can reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and other ailments, the company cannot make these sorts of assertions for the next 20 years, the judge said.

Judge D. Michael Chappell also said, however, that there are some health benefits to pomegranates and their juice. Pom has latched on to these particular quotes and is using them in a new ad that continue to argue the company’s point.

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Skechers is paying a $50 million settlement because Shape-Ups don’t work. Hahaha. I can’t.

They’ve set up a webpage for those who bought the shoes to file a claim, no proof of purchase necessary. You’ll get something in the $40 range for your trouble.

The settlement gave the Federal Trade Commission the chance to tell a funny: “The F.T.C.’s message, for Skechers and other national advertisers, is to shape up your substantiation or tone down your claims.” Boom.

For its part, Skechers still says the shoes work and that they only settled to avoid the higher cost of a lawsuit. They’re substantiating their claims with “studies” that the FTC says actually proved nothing. Click here to read the company’s statement.

Branding firm Hudson & Broad is suing JC Penney for $40 million for “breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.” Using the retailer’s own “fair and square” marketing tagline against it, the firm has created the video above with an appeal to JCP spokeswoman Ellen DeGeneres, asking for her support. Last night, DeGeneres’ show posted a pre-show video in support of the President’s same-sex marriage stance, so hey, you never know.

Click here for more info about the case.

[via Ad Age]

Keith Olbermann has made good on his promise to sue Current TV, TMZ is reporting. The site says Olbermann filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles just this afternoon, “suing for breach of contract, sabotage and disparagement.”

Current’s founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt released a joint statement on Friday announcing Olbermann’s dismissal, with Olbermann retaliating on Twitter and in his own statement. For his part, Olbermann said he would show “in the legal actions” that claims made by the Current execs are untrue. Since then, Olbermann has appeared on Letterman and talked about the situation.

His lawyer is Patricia Glaser, who represented Conan O’Brien after he was fired by NBC. O’Brien got a $45 million settlement for he and his staff.

*Update: TMZ has posted a copy of the lawsuit, in which Olbermann says Current owes him as much as $70 million.

Weber Shandwick has been granted a temporary restraining order against H+K Strategies, the firm’s COO Ken Luce, and its EVP Jody Venturoni. Weber filed court documents in Dallas alleging breach of contract by Luce and Venturoni and misappropriation of confidential info by the two execs and H+K.

Luce joined H+K about a year ago; Venturoni joined the firm last month. Both previously worked for Weber for more than a decade. There have been other moves from Weber to H+K in recent months as well, notes The Holmes Report. The court filing shows that Weber alerted Luce to an investigation in December 2011 and both he and H+K responded in writing.

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A Wisconsin man, Ronald Ball, is suing PepsiCo for $50,000, claiming that after tasting a rancid Mountain Dew he bought from a vending machine, he poured out the contents of the can and discovered a dead mouse in his soda. Bloody hell.

After contacting the company, Ball sent the evidence to PepsiCo. Lawyers and experts from the company say that after closer examination, they determined that the mouse would’ve “dissolved in the soda” in the time between bottling and consumption, turning it into a “jelly-like substance.” Yeah, this is their defense.

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A lawsuit filed in July 2010 raises a new question about how companies should handle their social media presence.

An Oakland, CA writer, Noah Kravitz, left his job with PhoneDog.com in 2010 after four years of service. While working there, he tweeted under the name @Phonedog_Noah, gathering 17,000 followers. And once he was gone, he says the company asked him to tweet on behalf of Phonedog every now and again. Once he was gone Kravitz changed the Twitter handle to @NoahKravitz. Eight months after leaving the position, Kravitz was sued by Phonedog, the company claiming that the handle’s followers are a customer list. The company wants $340,000, or $2.50 per follower per month.

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Tostitos has already been slammed for its fake “artisanal” labeling. Now it’s being sued for allegedly fake “all natural” labeling.

Milberg LLP has filed a class-action lawsuit against Frito-Lay claiming that the company’s packaging on Sun Chips and Tostitos chips is misleading. The claim is based on the use of genetically modified seeds corn and vegetable oil used in the product. The Huffington Post points out that the FDA definition of natural is, ”ingredients extracted directly from plants or animal products as opposed to being produced synthetically.” So the case could be hard to win.

Milburg has previously sued ConAgra for the same reason. While things are slow next week, tell your clients to fact check their packaging.

Facebook has settled its privacy case with the Federal Trade Commission, which has been ongoing since 2009. The case stems from a change in Facebook’s privacy settings that year that made once private info public without warning. The company isn’t paying anything as part of the settlement, but, like Google, which settled its own privacy case, must have its privacy standards assessed by an outside group for the next 20 years and requires the social network to get the OK from people before it makes changes.

And the FTC really put its foot down with this mandate: “The proposed settlement bars Facebook from making any further deceptive privacy claims.” You can’t break the law again Facebook! Or else! (They typed the “or else” really hard on the keyboard for emphasis.)

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Mariah Yeater, the woman who accused Justin Bieber — of all people — of fathering her three-month-old son, has dropped her lawsuit. TMZ has already published damaging text messages that indicate Yeater may have been trying to delete correspondence that points the paternity finger at another guy. But the Biebs hasn’t dropped his intentions of taking a DNA test.

From the beginning, Bieber and his people (which includes publicist Matthew Hiltzik) denied that there was any truth to Yeater’s allegations and they planned to back it up with a paternity test. Now with the case terminated, it would seem Bieber has been vindicated. Even still, E! is reporting that Bieber plans on going ahead with the test.

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