On December 15, 2011, the Honorable Dale S. Fischer of the United States District Court for the Central District of California certified a proposed class action lawsuit captioned Montanez et al. v. Gerber Childrenswear LLC to proceed on behalf of the following class of persons:

All residents of California who purchased Gerber apparel products containing tagless labels on garments manufactured by (1) Jay Jay Mills (India) with “M/S Gokul” labels from October 1, 2005 to August 2008; (2) Jay Jay Mills (India) with redesigned “phthalate-free” Gokul labels from August 2008 through September 30, 2009; and (3) Kitex from October 1, 2005 through May 20, 2009.

A copy of the Court’s order can be downloaded here:

Order: Dkt.244.Minutes Granting Class Cert Mtn.12.15.11

Plaintiffs in Montanez allege certain infant tagless label garments contain excessive levels of skin irritants, particularly phthalates, in the tagless label area. Gerber denies these allegations and is challenging this class certification order by petitioning the Ninth Circuit. The Court has not yet ruled on the merits of these claims or defenses, and the petition to the Ninth Circuit has also not been ruled upon yet. The Court has not set a trial date, but a trial date may be set for later in 2012.

A class notice is being prepared for court review and approval describing class members’ options, as well as providing a description of how to determine if a particular tagless label garment was made by one of the above manufacturers and when based on information from a code contained on the inside sewn-in label. Check back to this site for updates.