On October 24, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California held that the majority of false advertising claims made by a class of Plaintiff’s over hair products labeled as “Wild Naturals” against Proctor & Gamble (“P&G”) could go forward.

The Court allowed multiple claims alleging that phrases on products packaging are deceptive, stating, “The court cannot conclude at this stage of the litigation that a reasonable consumer would not be misled by the term ‘naturally’ or ‘Wild Naturals.’  The Court specifically denied the argument that since P&G did not condition the term “Natural” with modifiers such as “all” or “100 percent” that the labelling was generalized or “mere puffery.”

While the Judge did dismiss a few claims—such as claims for false advertising based on a website the representative Plaintiff’s never visited—Fraud, UCL, CLRA and breach of warranty claims (and claims for punitive damages) all survived.