Target False-Ad Suit Challenging Sheet Thread Count Gets Revived

A suit alleging Target Corp. deceived shoppers over “100% cotton” 800-thread count bed sheets was revived by a federal appeals court Friday.

The lower court failed to analyze whether the label was ambiguous, which would require a reasonable consumer to account for additional information to interpret the label’s claim, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said. It reversed dismissal of the suit and remanded for further proceedings.

Plaintiff Alexander Panelli sued Target after buying the sheets as advertised. He said that the bedding was rougher than he expected, that independent testing showed the sheets had a thread ...