Kramer Levin Win for Procter & Gamble in False Advertising Case Highlighted in Law360

Kramer Levin's victory for client Procter & Gamble was reported on by Law360. The Kramer Levin team of Litigation partners Harold P. Weinberger, Norman C. Simon and associate Eileen M. Patt, defeated a motion for class certification in a false advertising case brought under the Lanham Act by a group of professional salons and stylists who claim that Procter & Gamble and other defendant-manufacturers falsely advertise their hair products as exclusively available in salons, when their products are in fact available in the mass market through a phenomenon called “diversion.” They also claimed reputational harm from the "salon only" advertising. The judge found that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the alleged injury to the salons’ reputations was susceptible of class-wide proof. Mr. Weinberger was quoted as saying that the decision followed the reasoning in the denial of an earlier motion to dismiss, as the judge "...did so expressly on the theory that they [plaintiffs] had pled reputational harm." He also said that the defendant in the case should have been a Procter & Gamble subsidiary, not the parent company.