Kumar v. Salov North America Corp., et al.

Docket number: 4:14-cv-02411-YGR (N.D. Cal.); 17-16405 (9th Cir.)

On May 2, 2017, the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) filed an objection on behalf of a class member to the proposed settlement in Kumar v. Salov North America Corp. This is a settlement over claims marketers of Filippo Berio olive oil deceived consumers by including the label “Imported from Italy” on their olive oil bottles, when many of the olives used to make the olive oil came from Greece, Tunisia, and elsewhere.

The settlement provided up to $5, without proof of purchase, to any consumer who is willing to attest that they relied on the product’s “Imported from Italy” labeling when purchasing it. This limitation applied even though the class includes everyone who made a purchase, regardless of whether they relied on the “Imported from Italy” labeling. The settlement also enjoined Defendant from using the phrase “Imported from Italy” on its products—which matches what the company had already been doing since 2015. The settlement provides attorneys’ fees and expenses of $982,500, which is four times the amount of cash they “won” for class members—a mere $210,985.

CCAF challenged class certification, settlement fairness, and attorneys’ fees in this case. The fairness hearing was held on May 30, 2017, in Oakland, California. On July 7, 2017, the district court granted final approval of the settlement, even though more than 80 percent of the settlement fund would go to class counsel rather than the class members.

CCAF appealed this decision, but the Ninth Circuit panel affirmed the district court in an unpublished opinion the elided the economic reality of a settlement that provides four times as much benefit to attorneys than their clients.

This case was litigated while the Center for Class Action Fairness ​was a project of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

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