The Supreme Court today holds that California consumers can sue under state law for the mislabeling of foods as organic. In Quesada v. Herb Thyme Farms, Inc., a unanimous opinion by Justice Kathryn Werdegar concludes that such an action — under the state’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, unfair competition law, and false advertising law — is not preempted by the federal Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. The court finds that Congress “confined the areas of state law expressly preempted to matters related to certifying production as organic, leaving untouched enforcement against abuse of the label ‘organic'” and that “state lawsuits alleging intentional organic mislabeling promote, rather than hinder, Congress’s purposes and objectives.”
The Supreme Court reverses the Second District, Division Three, Court of Appeal.
