By Mike Scarcella
Feb 7 (Reuters) –Colgate-Palmolive‘s CL.N The pet food unit has been hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing it of colluding with veterinarians to disparage smaller competitors that sell “non-traditional” dog food, hurting their sales.
Startup brand KetoNatural filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Kansas federal court against Hill’s Pet Nutrition, one of the largest pet-food manufacturers in the United States, and a group of veterinarians. The lawsuit alleges violations of a federal law that prohibits false advertising.
Hill’s, according to the complaint, conspired to make false statements linking “boutique, exotic and grain-free” diets to a greater risk of a fatal canine disease that causess an enlarged heart.
Salt Lake City-based KetoNatural said those alleged statements “misrepresented the nature, properties, and characteristics” of its product.
“Defendants’ false claims about the dangers of pet food from smaller manufacturers have scared billions of dollars of business from smaller manufacturers and into Hill’s coffers,” the suit says. .
Colgate-Palmolive did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
An attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas Burt, declined to comment about the lawsuit.
KetoNatural is seeking class-action status for at least several hundred companies with combined annual revenues of more than $10 billion.
The company said in the lawsuit that it “cultivated evidence” from customers who said they stopped buying its dog food because of concerns about a purported link to a canine heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy.
The lawsuit alleges that the US Food and Drug Administration as part of the alleged scheme was “induced” in 2018 to investigate a “potential link between certain diets” and dilated cardiomyopathy.
KetoNatural states that “the investigation has never actually shown any link between the disease and the targeted products.”
Hill is separately facing a consumer class-action in US federal court in Chicago alleging deceptive marketing practices and sales of its pet food. Hill denied the claims.
The case is KetoNatural Pet Foods Inc v. Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc et al, US District Court for the District of Kansas, No. 2:24-cv-02046.
For the plaintiff: Thomas Burt and Kate McGuire of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz
For the defendants: No appearance yet
Reporting by Mike Scarcella
