Listen to this articleWolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP, a leading law firm in protecting consumers and small businesses against corporate fraud and unfair competition, recently announced that it has filed a major class action lawsuit against Hill’s Pet Nutrition , Inc., a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive Co . and one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of pet food products containing grain, as well as a group of veterinary academics and organizations with financial ties to the company. According to Thomas Burta partner in Lobo HaldensteinThe $2.6 billion The damages award sought in the case will be the largest in the history of The united state pet food industry.
the suit, KetoNatural Pet Foods v. Hill’s Pet Nutritionwas filed in The united state District Court for the District of Kansas in February 6. It alleges that Hill’s and the other defendants conducted a coordinated scheme to persuade American pet owners that grain-free dog food products sold by many of Hill’s competitors increased the risk and severity of a fatal canine heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). The scheme allegedly involved a wide range of wrongdoing by the defendants, most notably fraudulently misrepresenting case data about DCM to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA spent more than five years conducting a widely publicized investigation into “a potential association” between grain-free dog foods and DCM, only to suspend further updates on the investigation last year after it was announced that it did not find sufficient data to establish a relationship between DCM and the products investigated.
The lawsuit alleges that the FDA’s investigation of DCM was fraudulently solicited by veterinarians affiliated with Hill’s Tufts University and other major research institutions, all of which have received extensive funding from Hill-related entities. Veterinarians allegedly caused the FDA to take drastic action by flooding the agency with hundreds of DCM case reports that were deliberately selected to overstate the prevalence of grain-free diets in dogs suffering from of pain.
The FDA’s investigation received significant media coverage in 2018 and 2019, sparking a panic over DCM that cost the market for grain-free pet foods billions of dollars. The suit alleges that Hill’s and its accomplices caused panic by making false statements about the scientific evidence surrounding DCM, both to the veterinary community and the general public, as well as by manipulating language. of academic papers, using front organizations to hide undisclosed payments to veterinary researchers and creating Facebook groups and websites to promote misinformation and suppress dissent.
According to the lawsuit, this scheme caused a staggering financial windfall for Hill’s, a company that had been steadily losing market share to grain-free competitors in the years before the controversy: In the four years immediately preceding the launch of the FDA investigation, Hill’s lost 20 percent of its market share. In the five years since the investigation began, it has become the fastest growing pet food company in the country.
According to a Reuters report, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of KetoNatural Pet Foods, a Utah-based pet food startup specializing in the production of low-carbohydrate dog food products. KetoNatural is seeking class-action status for at least several hundred companies with combined annual revenues of more than $10 billion. KetoNatural said in the lawsuit that it “cultivated evidence” from customers who said they stopped buying its dog food because of concerns about the alleged linkage to DCM.
According to Burt, pet food brands such as KetoNatural are just one of several discrete groups targeted by Hill’s and his co-conspirators. “We know that boutique pet food retailers and pet-owners across the country have also been misled by the misconception that grain-free pet food increases the risk of canine DCM. While we continue to investigate potential claims against Hill’s and its co-conspirators, we urge anyone who believes they have been victimized by the misconduct described in this suit to contact our offices.”
Hill’s Pet Nutrition responded to a request for comment with the following statement: “Hill’s Pet Nutrition operates with the utmost integrity in all aspects of our business. We believe the allegations are without merit, and we will vigorously defend our position.”
