Court Denies Bid to Wipe Baby Wipes Class Action

ByPFAS Primer Team

After previously granting Costco’s motion to dismiss but with leave to amend, a court denied Costco’s latest request to dismiss a putative class action for allegedly selling PFAS-containing baby wipes. In its previous order, the court observed that “PFAS” is “not a magic word that can be invoked to open automatically the doors to federal litigation” and held that the plaintiff failed to identify the specific PFAS in her product, such that the case was subject to dismissal. But this time, the court allowed the putative class action complaint to proceed past the motion to dismiss stage. Unlike in the original complaint, the plaintiff used a “Department of Defense ELAP-certified laboratory” to determine the levels of certain PFAS in baby wipes. The court will not decide the degree to which those levels present an alleged public health hazard nor whether and when to impose liability on manufacturers of particular products in which those chemicals are detected.

May 14, 2025 | Bullard v. Costco Wholesale Corp., No. 3:24-cv-03714 (N.D. Cal.).

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