Procter & Gamble achieves dismissals with prejudice of two putative class action lawsuits over advertising for batteries

Client(s) Procter & Gamble Company, The

Jones Day successfully defended The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) and its subsidiary The Gillette Company in two statewide consumer class actions in California and Massachusetts concerning Duracell AA and AAA Coppertop batteries. Plaintiffs alleged that P&G falsely advertised the batteries as "Guaranteed for 10 years in Storage" under the DuraLock power preserve guarantee even though the batteries allegedly have the potential to leak in normal usage. In late 2015, the district court in Massachusetts dismissed the entire complaint with prejudice on the ground that plaintiffs had not alleged a material defect that required disclosure because they had not alleged anything more than that the batteries had the "potential" to fail and that some unknown quantity did fail, which could be said of any mass-produced consumer product. On March 15, 2016, the district court in California followed suit, dismissing the entire California case with prejudice on the same grounds.

Punian v. The Gillette Co., Case No. 5:14-cv-05028 (N.D. Cal.); Carlson v. The Gillette Co., Case No. 1:14-cv-14201-FDS (D. Mass)