Supreme Court Refuses To Hear POM Wonderful’s Appeal In False Advertising Case

After nearly six years of legal wrangling over allegations of false advertising, the makers of POM Wonderful pomegranate beverages ran into a dead end this morning when the nation’s highest court refused to hear the company’s appeal.

The dispute between POM and the Federal Trade Commission goes back to 2010, when the FTC accused the company of making unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits of its products. At the time, the company’s marketing touted that medical research had shown that its products fought atherosclerosis, prostate cancer and other specific diseases.

In May 2012, an administrative law judge ruled that 19 POM ads were deceptive, but then in Jan. 2013, the FTC decided that a total of 36 ads were problematic, and ordered the company to stop making any kind of health-related claims without independent peer-reviewed studies to back those claims up.

Two years ago, POM appealed this ruling, arguing that the FTC overstepped its authority and that the requirement of having to undertake bona fide scientific studies (as opposed to just making things up) was overly burdensome.

And let’s not forget John Oliver’s attempt to re-label POM as containing rat urine and real pomeranians (it doesn’t), and the company’s thinly veiled response that Oliver should shove a case of their drink where the sun don’t shine.

Things finally seemed to come to a close in Jan. 2015, when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately sided with the FTC, writing that “Many of those ads mischaracterized the scientific evidence concerning the health benefits of POM’s products with regard to those diseases.”

In a statement, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez says she is pleased to finally have this dispute resolved.

“The outcome of this case makes clear that companies like POM making serious health claims about food and nutritional supplement products must have rigorous scientific evidence to back them up,” says Ramirez. “Consumers deserve no less.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

The U.S. Has A Giant Cheese Surplus And Unfortunately, This Is A Bad Thing

In many cases, having too much cheese is the kind of problem that can be solved by pointing me in the direction of that dairy and letting nature take its course. But the surplus cheese and butter situation the U.S. now finds itself in won’t be sorted out so easily.

Right now, we’re sitting on the largest cheese stockpile the country has seen in 30 years, Bloomberg reports, which means our export business is not booming.

We can blame our neighbors over yonder in Europe: the European Union’s dairy export business has been climbing so far this year and last — this, despite big spender Russia putting the kibosh on buying cheese from outside the country (and, ultimately, destroying tons of it by committing fromagicide).

There’s too much milk, cheap prices, and a weak euro right now, which means the EU has been going gangbusters selling cheese in Asia and the Middle East. Meanwhile, U.S. exports have fallen — no one wants our cheese, and everyone wants Europe is selling.

And by everyone, that means, well, everyone: European cheese is so cheap, even the U.S. is buying — and digging itself a deeper hole as those products pile up in refrigerators. The dairy glut is compounded by the fact that American dairy production is at record levels this year as well, Bloomberg notes.

As a result, cheese inventories at the end of March were the highest for that period since 1984, according to USDA statistics. More than half of the surplus is American cheese, with Swiss accounting for 2% and the rest falling into a mysterious category the government calls “other.”

“It’s been difficult for them to export, given the strong dollar, and they’re sucking in imports,” a global dairy market strategist explained to Bloomberg. “Where the U.S. has lost out on business, Europe has gained.”

This isn’t all that great for some on the other side of the pond, however: European dairy farmers have been warning that these bargain prices could put them out of business.

If you take anything away from this, let it be that we need to eat more cheese. Immediately.

The U.S. Is Sitting on a Mountain of Cheese [Bloomberg]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Hulu’s Live-TV Streaming Service Would Compete With Co-Owner Comcast

The Hulu streaming video service is co-owned by Disney (ABC), Fox, and Comcast (NBC), and — not surprisingly — it has a record of playing nice with its broadcast TV overlords. But a possible pivot into the live-TV streaming market would put Hulu in competition with Comcast.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Hulu is inching closer to offering a service that would appeal to cord-cutters by offering them access to live streams of broadcast and cable channels, similar to what’s already offered by Dish Network’s Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue.

All three of Hulu’s owners have been amenable to some of their networks showing up on these other services. Disney’s ESPN was a major selling point for Sling when it launched, and Fox recently became part of the Sling family in a new tier that includes both multiple simultaneous streams and access to some local network TV; Disney is not part of that offering. NBC and Fox were part of Vue at launch, with Disney’s ABC coming later to the party.

The Journal says that both Disney and Fox are close to making deals that would license their content for streaming on this new offering from Hulu.

But not Comcast. While the company is a silent partner in Hulu — a condition of Comcast’s 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal — it may be reluctant to be a part owner in a platform that competes directly with its cable TV service.

Hulu has yet to give the planned live-TV service a name or a price point, though analysts say $40/month seems most likely.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Everyone Rush To Giant Before This Amazing Pasta Sale Is Over

Pre-packaged pasta sides are a cheap and easy addition to your meal, and they’re even more affordable if you wait for a good sale. When we say a “good” sale, though, that doesn’t mean a sale like this one at the supermarket Giant.

Reader Kevin noticed this display, where someone was asked to go to the trouble to place shelf tags on every variety of Knorr pasta packets, even though the packets are effectively not on sale at all.

At least they didn’t raise the price when putting the pasta on sale. That’s a Target move.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Uber, Blind Passengers Reach Settlement In Lawsuit Over Service Animals

More than a year after the National Federation of the Blind of California filed a lawsuit accusing Uber drivers of discriminating against passengers waiting for rides with service animals, the two sides announced they’ve reached a settlement.

Uber has agreed to take affirmative steps to prevent discrimination against blind riders who have guide dogs with them across the U.S. According to a press release from the Federation, this is the first nationwide class-action settlement of its kind against an app-based transportation network company.

Uber passengers had claimed that drivers denied them rides when they realized they’d have a guide dog in the car as well. In some cases, blind customers said drivers told them to put their animals in the trunk, or charge cancellation fees even when they were the ones to deny a ride.

Under the settlement, Uber is promising to end that kind of discrimination: the company says it will take steps to inform drivers about their obligations to transport riders with service animals, and will require new drivers to expressly confirm that they understand their legal obligations to do so.

The company will also use stricter enforcement in cases where drivers fail to comply: it’ll only take a single complaint now to have a driver removed front the platform if Uber finds that the driver knowingly denied a rider with a service animal. If a driver has more than one such complaint leveled at them, they’ll be booted from the platform regardless of the driver’s intent.

The ride-hailing company is also promising to improve its response system for these kinds of discrimination complaints, and will track detailed data related to all such allegations.

The National Federation of the Blind will also be going behind the scenes, sending out testers over a multi-year period to make sure Uber is complying with the settlement.

“Access to reliable and effective transportation is critical to the ability of blind people to live the lives we want,” Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said. “Uber and similar services can be a great asset to the blind when they are fully and equally available to us. The National Federation of the Blind is therefore pleased with Uber’s commitment to effectively enforce a nondiscrimination policy with respect to blind people who use guide dogs. We look forward to working with Uber to ensure that all blind passengers can take advantage of the innovative transportation service it offers.”

The settlement is now awaiting approval from the court to settle as a nationwide class action.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Nissan Recalls 3.7M Vehicles Over Airbag issues

Two years after recalling 1 million vehicles because of faulty airbags, and a year after federal regulators questioned whether that fix had worked, Nissan is giving the whole airbag recall thing another shot: recalling 3.7 million vehicles that contain airbags that might not deploy properly in the event of a crash. 

Nissan announced over the weekend that it would recall the vehicles in two separate initiatives, putting to end to an investigation opened by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in March 2015.

According to a notice [PDF] posted with NHTSA, the first recall involves 3.2 million vehicles in which the Occupant Classification System (OCS) — which uses sensors to identify an occupant in the passenger seat — may not detect an adult in the passenger seat, resulting in the non-deployment of airbags in the event of a crash.

Nissan notes that a number of circumstances could lead to the incorrect vacant classification, including high vibration at idle when the seat is empty and then becomes occupied, or unusual occupant seating postures.

In all, that issue covers model year 2016-2017 Maxima, model year 2013-2016 Altima, NV200, LEAF and Sentra, model year 2013-2017 Pathfinder, model year 2014-2016 NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60 and Q50, model year 2014-2017 Rogue, model year 2015-2016 Murano, Chevrolet City Express and model year 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles.

The problem first surfaced in early 2013, when Nissan said it became aware of possible issues with the system. The company was unable to determine if the problem constituted a safety defect, but later recalled 990,000 vehicles in March 2014.

However, regulators received 124 complaints from vehicle owners after their cars were fixed, prompting NHTSA to open an investigation into the issue and proposed fix.

The car company now says it is aware of at least three crashes in which the airbag system did not deploy properly. Those incidents resulted in moderate injuries.

In addition to the 3.2 million vehicles that may not detect an adult passenger, Nissan says that 622,000 model year 2013 to 2016 Sentra vehicles are being recalled because of an issue with the Child Restraint system.

According to a notice [PDF] with NHTSA, the front passenger seat belt bracket may become deformed if it is used to secure a Child Restraint System.

The deformed seat bracket may cause the Occupant Classification System to incorrectly classify the installed child restraint, resulting in the front passenger airbag deploying when it should not.

If the airbag deploys when a child seat is installed in the front passenger area, there could be increased risk of injury in the event of a crash.

Nissan says it will notify owners of all the recalled vehicles and a dealer will make appropriate repairs when parts are available.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Secretive U.S. Spy Court Approved All Surveillance Orders In 2015

The federal court set up to review government requests for surveillance involving issues of national security is either rubber-stamping everything that it sees, or the FBI and the National Security Agency are incredibly good at filing these requests. A new report claims that the court approved every single one of the 1,457 requests it received last year.

This is according to Reuters, which cites a Justice Department memo sent to Congressional leaders regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC].

The memo states that the requests were not even partially rejected by the FISC, though a total of 80 surveillance requests were modified by the court before being approved. Reuters reports that in 2013, FISC approved all 1,379 requests while only modifying 19 of them.

The court, created as part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, has long operated secretly. Recently passed legislation ordered the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Attorney General to conduct a declassification review of “each decision, order, or opinion issued” by these two courts “that includes a significant construction or interpretation of any provision of law” and to make each document “publicly available to the greatest extent practicable.”

Last month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the DOJ after the EFF’s Freedom Of Information Act requests regarding FISC decisions were denied.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist