Mass Tort brief
Sugar-Free Labeling Claims and Geopolitical Bias Motions Reach Israeli Litigation
Israeli class actions target ice cream claims while Teva seeks to shield its corporate nationality in U.S. generic drug trials.
Mass Tort
Lod's court certified a ₪350 million suit against Golda for 13-fold sugar limits — setting a strict legal precedent that health-claim mislabeling carries massive class liability in Israel.
BackgroundIsraeli consumer protection laws ban labeling food as sugar-free if sugar exceeds 0.5 grams per 100 grams. Golda operates over 100 Israeli parlors and marketed low-sugar lines alongside national health bodies, raising the stakes for its brand reputation.
- Lab tests revealed Golda's ice cream contained 6.6 grams of sugar per 100 grams, exceeding legal limits by 13 times and exposing diabetic consumers to health risks.
- Judge Iris Rabinovitch-Brun rejected Golda's defense that customers understand sugar-free as no added sugar, establishing a strict standard for consumer protection claims.
- The decision allows claims for deception, statutory duty breach, and unjust enrichment to proceed, forcing the company to defend its marketing practices or face massive payouts.
Mass Tort
Teva is asking a U.S. court to conceal its Israeli roots from a price-fixing jury — exposing how geopolitical fallout from the war now poses direct legal liability for Israeli multinationals.
BackgroundTeva faces a September 15 trial in Philadelphia over claims its U.S. division conspired to fix generic drug prices. Federal evidentiary rules permit judges to exclude factual details if unfair prejudice outweighs their relevance to commercial claims.
- Teva argued in court filings that anti-Israel public controversy during wartime threatens its constitutional right to an impartial jury trial in the United States.
- Insurer Humana's lawsuit accuses Teva's American arm of orchestrating illegal price-fixing schemes across muscle relaxants and blood pressure medications, seeking substantial damages.
- Teva maintained that parent company nationality is legally irrelevant to whether its U.S. division colluded on drug pricing, seeking a clean trial focused solely on commercial facts.
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