Class certification in alleged false advertising case

Our client, a producer of branded nutritional supplements, had been accused of collecting a market price premium on its products due to alleged false claims appearing on the product label. Brattle’s expert testified that the plaintiff’s expert had failed to describe a workable approach for determining the damages associated with this price premium on a class-wide basis. In particular, Brattle’s expert explained that the plaintiff’s proposed use of a conjoint analysis to assess the price premium was unworkable because conjoint survey data only take into account demand side factors whereas a price premium would be the product of both supply and demand factors. Brattle’s expert also explained that the plaintiff’s proposed use of a hedonic analysis was unworkable because the available data would not allow for separate estimation of the price premium.