Litigation

Herrick senior litigator, Ronald Levine, was interviewed by Law360 for its forecast of consumer protection cases to watch for 2026. Ron predicted that the "consumer protection litigation theme of "washing" will prevail in 2026 as the plaintiffs' bar continues to press innovative claims against companies over deceptive promises about the environmental, health and AI benefits of their products or services." He also observed, among other points, that “consumer protection in 2026 will not be a story about more rules. It will be about making modern technology behave in ways consumers can understand and trust."

"Greenwashing" actions over companies' environmental claims, "pinkwashing" accusations that parties are not as inclusive of women and the LGBTQ community as they purport to be, and "AI washing" claims that marketers deceptively overstate a corporation's use of the technology will all make an appearance in the year to come, Ron said.

"Washing cases play off consumer expectations for environmental and social causes in making claims about a company's products," Ron said. "There are two levels to that. One is where a company says it is abiding by certain principles and is challenged on whether it's following those guidelines. Or the brand itself is making claims of, for example, being nontoxic with no chemicals."

As for AI washing, Ron said, regulators at the federal, state and local levels are keeping an eye on this topic.

The article highlighted that "a Washington state task force on December 1, 2025, unveiled a set of proposed guardrails and disclosure requirements for the responsible use of AI, including mandating that developers publicly share details about data used to train their models and requiring law enforcement to disclose the use of AI tools."

Ron noted that in 2023, as AI erupted "like a technological storm" and turned industries upside down, the CFPB, the FTC, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a joint statement warning that "automated system outcomes can be skewed by unrepresentative or imbalanced datasets, datasets that incorporate historical bias, or datasets that contain other types of errors."

Don't be surprised in 2026 to see major class actions that flow from such regulatory pressure, Ron added.

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