On August 15, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held in Schaffner v. Monsanto that the plaintiff’s Pennsylvania state-law claims, which asserted that Monsanto failed to warn about alleged cancer risks presented by glyphosate (the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup), were expressly preempted by the Federal Insecticide,
Duane Morris Products Liability
Latest from Duane Morris Products Liability
CPSC Finds Amazon Liable for “Fulfilled by Amazon” Products
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently found Amazon to be a “distributor” with product liability responsibility for products sold on its website. In a July 29, 2024, ruling, the CPSC said Amazon is legally responsible for over 400,000 allegedly hazardous items sold by third-party sellers on its site. Amazon.com, Inc., CPSC…
Regulations for Automatic Emergency Braking Technologies Delayed by NHTSA and FMCSA
By Jim Steigerwald, Harry Byrne, and Ryan Monahan
The potential for rulemaking in 2024 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has been deferred to 2025 at the earliest, including on key state-of-the-art technologies such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) in heavy and medium-duty…
Plan Ahead to Protect Your Innovation: Product Liability Risks for Medtech Startups
A medtech startup typically focuses on two key legal needs: (1) ensuring that its technology has proper and thorough intellectual property protection, and (2) outlining a detailed pathway for FDA clearance. Those two priorities are understandable. The areas of intellectual property protection and a regulatory pathway are threshold issues that every potential investor wants addressed…
Rhe Latest Changes to the Beauty Regulatory Landscape
Duane Morris attorney Kelly Bonner was quoted in an article in WWD on June 25, 2024.
“A big deadline in the beauty and personal care regulatory landscape is fast approaching, with much more to come — although some experts believe this still isn’t enough.
Under the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act, or MoCRA, passed by…
Updated Federal Rules Can Improve Product Liability MDLs
In the evolving universe of multidistrict litigation, begun in the antitrust cases against major electronics manufacturers in the 1960s, federal courts have developed varying approaches to fulfilling their responsibilities to achieve efficiency and reduce costs. This process continues today almost 60 years since the creation of the first MDL. Read the Law360 article by Alan Klein and…
FDA Again Confirms No Asbestos in Cosmetic Talc Products
On April 5, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that its third-party testing of cosmetic talc products for 2023 identified no traces of asbestos in any of the 50 cosmetic samples tested. FDA’s 2023 results, which were reported in a Cosmetics Constituent Update, are consistent with its testing for 2022 and 2021…
Court’s Decision Affects Evidence Involving Industry & Gov’t Standards
By Alan Klein, Duane Morris LLP
A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision has reaffirmed the applicability of strict liability standards under Restatement Second’s §402(a) in products liability cases filed in the State, and has barred evidence of compliance with industry or governmental standards to demonstrate that a product was safe and not defective. While…
Pa. Supreme Court Rules on Proper Venue Standards
By Alan Klein and Ethan Feldman
In Hangey v. Husqvarna, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that the percentage of a corporate defendant’s total revenue generated from a forum county alone is insufficient to support the proposition that a defendant does not “regularly conduct business” in the county when analyzing whether a lawsuit’s venue is…
Deadline for MoCRA Facility Registration and Product Listing Requirements Pushed Back to July 1, 2024
Today, FDA announced updated guidance regarding its MoCRA rollout.
FDA does not intend to enforce the requirements related to cosmetic product facility registration and cosmetic product listing for an additional six months after the December 29, 2023, statutory deadline, or until July 1, 2024, to provide regulated industry additional time to comply with these requirements.
To…