An Economic Perspective On Food Labeling Cases

Dr. Jesse David, a partner at Edgeworth, gives an economic perspective of food labeling cases by discussing the “predominance” requirement for class certification. He explains that to understand the impact of the value of false advertising, one must perform a fact-intensive economic inquiry. He adds that economists should ask many questions including if the consumer was aware of the false claim, if the consumer was misled by the false claim and if the false claim was the reason the customer purchased the item.

Dr. David concludes by saying that while other types of class actions, like antitrust and employment cases, are requiring more detailed analyses of economic data at the class certification stage, the same may not yet be true for false ad cases.