Prescott v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedDecember 3, 2020
Docket5:20-cv-02101
StatusUnknown

This text of Prescott v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC (Prescott v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prescott v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC, (N.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 7 SAN JOSE DIVISION 8 9 STEVEN PRESCOTT, Case No. 20-cv-02101-BLF

10 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND 11 v. DENYING IN PART MOTION TO DISMISS FIRST AMENDED 12 RECKITT BENCKISER LLC, COMPLAINT, WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND 13 Defendant. [Re: ECF 26] 14

15 16 Plaintiff Steven Prescott (“Prescott”) brings this putative class action against Defendant 17 Reckitt Benckiser LLC (“RB”) on behalf of California residents who purchased “Woolite Laundry 18 Detergent,” which is defined to include both Woolite Darks laundry detergent and Woolite Gentle 19 Cycle laundry detergent. See FAC ¶ 14, ECF 24. Prescott claims that RB fraudulently represents 20 in its advertising and labeling that Woolite Laundry Detergent “brings the color back” to clothing, 21 “revives color,” and possesses “Color Renew,” when in fact the detergent does not revive color in 22 clothing. FAC ¶¶ 1-5. 23 RB has filed a motion to dismiss the first amended complaint (“FAC”) pursuant to Federal 24 Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), which is opposed by Prescott. The Court 25 previously submitted the motion for decision without oral argument and vacated the hearing. See 26 Order Submitting Motion, ECF 53. 27 For the reasons discussed below, the motion is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN 1 I. BACKGROUND1 2 Overview of Suit 3 Prescott alleges that starting in February 2017, “Reckitt Benckiser made materially 4 uniform representations (including that Woolite laundry detergent ‘brings the color back’ to 5 clothing, ‘revives color,’ and possesses ‘Color Renew’) through its advertising and on the labels of 6 Woolite laundry detergent bottles.” FAC ¶ 1. RB’s advertising included commercials aired on 7 television and posted on RB’s YouTube page, stating that Woolite with Color Renew “brings the 8 color back” to clothes. FAC ¶¶ 21-26. RB also began using a “Color Renew” logo on its 9 detergent labels. FAC ¶¶ 19-20. The front label of Woolite detergent bottles bears a rainbow- 10 colored hexagon surrounding the words “COLOR RENEW” in all capital letters. FAC ¶ 19. The 11 same rainbow-colored hexagon appears on the back of the bottle, but surrounding the words “How 12 COLOR RENEW Works.” FAC ¶ 20. The back label also contains a graphic showing that the 13 detergent “smooths rough fibers” and “removes pilling and fuzz” with the end result that it 14 “revives colors.” FAC ¶ 20. 15 A competitor in the detergent market, Proctor & Gamble, complained to the National 16 Advertising Division (“NAD”) about RB’s representations. FAC ¶ 2. The NAD is an arm of the 17 Council of Better Business Bureaus, which is “a private organization that offers a voluntary, 18 alternative setting for resolving advertising disputes between competitors.” NeoCell Corp. v. 19 BioCell Tech., LLC, No. SACV 16-02173 AG (JCGx), 2017 WL 10605266, at *1 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 20 21, 2017) (quotation marks and citation omitted). In August 2019, the NAD determined that RB’s 21 claims that its detergent “Brings Back the Color” and “Revives Color” conveyed “objective 22 performance messages regarding Woolite’s ability to improve the color of fabric” that were 23 unsupported by RB’s data. FAC ¶ 30. The NAD recommended that those claims “be 24 discontinued.” Id. RB agreed to follow the NAD’s recommendation. FAC ¶ 31. According to 25 Prescott, however, Reckitt Benckiser continues to represent on Woolite laundry detergent bottle 26 1 The background facts are drawn from the allegations of the FAC, which are accepted as true for 27 purposes of the motion to dismiss. See Reese v. BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., 643 F.3d 681, 690 1 labels that the laundry detergent “revives color.” FAC ¶ 32. Prescott, “through counsel, 2 conducted objective testing of the claim that Woolite laundry detergent revives color in clothing,” 3 and “Woolite laundry detergent failed the objective test.” FAC ¶ 4. 4 Prescott alleges that RB’s advertising and labeling misleads consumers into believing that 5 Woolite Laundry Detergent revives color in clothing when it does not. He “filed this putative 6 class action to hold Reckitt Benckiser accountable for its ongoing fraud.” FAC ¶ 5. Prescott seeks 7 to represent a class of “[a]ll residents of California who purchased Woolite Laundry Detergent 8 from March 26, 20162 to the present (the ‘Class Period’).” FAC ¶ 50. 9 Prescott’s Experiences 10 In 2017 and 2018, Prescott purchased more than ten bottles of Woolite Darks laundry 11 detergent, for which he paid more than $80. FAC ¶¶ 37-38. Prescott alleges that prior to his 12 purchases, he saw television advertisements for the detergent, but he does not allege the contents 13 of those television advertisements. FAC ¶ 39. Prescott also alleges that prior to his purchases, he 14 “read Woolite’s ‘Color Renew’ logo representation on the Woolite Darks laundry detergent 15 bottle.” FAC ¶ 40. “Based on Reckitt Benckiser’s color renewal misrepresentations, Prescott 16 believed that Woolite Darks laundry detergent would revive color in clothing.” FAC ¶ 41. The 17 detergent “did not renew or revive the color in Prescott’s clothing,” which suffered fading so 18 significant after being washed in Woolite laundry detergent that Prescott stopped wearing many 19 items. FAC ¶ 42. Prescott stopped purchasing Woolite Darks laundry detergent in late 2018. 20 FAC ¶ 43. “Prescott would not have purchased Woolite Darks laundry detergent if he had known 21 that Woolite Darks laundry detergent did not revive color in clothing.” FAC ¶ 41. 22 Testing 23 Prescott alleges that, through counsel, he “conducted objective testing of the claim that 24 Woolite Laundry Detergent revives color / brings the color back to clothing.” FAC ¶ 33. The 25 testing was done by a laboratory certified by the American Association of Textile Chemists and 26 2 It is unclear why the proposed class period begins in March 2016 when the allegedly fraudulent 27 Color Renew representations began almost a year later in February 2017. Compare FAC ¶ 1 (RB 1 Colorists. Id. Eight samples of cotton clothing were washed with Woolite Laundry Detergent, 2 and the clothing’s loss in color was measured using a color spectrophotometer. FAC ¶ 35. In all 3 eight samples, “the clothing lost a significant amount of color by the tenth wash with Woolite 4 Laundry Detergent,” and by the twenty-fifth wash “all eights samples of clothing had a lost an 5 additional significant amount of color [sic].” Id. “[T]he color had not come back” into the 6 clothing. Id. 7 Claims Asserted 8 Prescott asserts three state law claims on behalf of himself and a putative class of 9 California residents: (1) violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”), Cal. Bus. & 10 Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.; (2) violation of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act 11 (“CLRA”), Cal. Civ. Code § 1750 et seq.; and (3) Quasi-Contract Claim for Restitution. He seeks 12 numerous forms of relief, including damages, restitution, disgorgement, and injunctive relief. See 13 FAC Prayer. 14 RB moves to dismiss these claims for lack of constitutional standing under Rule 12(b)(1) 15 and for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). 16 II. LEGAL STANDARD 17 A. Rule 12(b)(1) 18 A party may challenge the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction by bringing a motion to 19 dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). “A Rule 12(b)(1) jurisdictional attack 20 may be facial or factual.” Safe Air For Everyone v. Meyer, 373 F.3d 1035, 1039 (9th Cir. 2004).

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Prescott v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prescott-v-reckitt-benckiser-llc-cand-2020.