On February 11, 2015, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of Walgreen Co. and Duane Reade Inc. (collectively, “Defendants”) on behalf of all consumers nationwide who have purchased the following “Finest Nutrition” brand supplements: Gingko Biloba, St. John’s Wort, Ginseng, and Echinacea.
The lawsuit alleges that Defendants, owners of the largest drug retailing chain in the United States, misbranded the aforementioned supplements in their “Finest Nutrition” product line by not accurately identifying all the ingredients or quantity of such ingredients included in the supplements. This lawsuit follows a recent report by the New York State Attorney General which tested the listed supplements and found that none of them contained the substances for which they were named. The report in issue was commenced in response to consumer concern in regards to the lax nature of supplement testing, which is treated like a food by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), rather than a Drug, and therefore does not need to be approved by the FDA for safety or effectiveness.
The lawsuit specifically claims that the supplements’ product labels, packaging, advertisement, and other marketing materials constituted uniform representations that the supplements contained the ingredients they were named after. Therefore, Plaintiff alleges that by purchasing these supplements, they formed a legal contract with Defendants, which Defendants breached by providing a product which did not contain the represented ingredients. Additionally, Plaintiff claims that Defendants’ marketing of its products established an express warranty by creating reasonable expectations that the products would contain the represented ingredients, which was subsequently breached.
Plaintiff also alleges that Defendants breached their product’s implied warranty of merchantability because their supplements were defectively designed and were unfit for their intended and ordinary purpose. Further, Plaintiff claims that by misrepresenting the ingredients in its supplement products, Defendants inequitably and unjustly profited off misinformation given to its consumers. Plaintiff also argues that Defendants were negligent in making these misrepresentations because they had no reasonable basis upon which they could have made their representations.
Finally, Plaintiff claims that Defendants violated New York’s General Business Law, which makes it unlawful to commit an unfair or deceptive practice in commerce. Specifically, Plaintiff argues that Defendants were deceptive in how they designed, packaged, marketed, distributed, and sold their misbranded supplements.
We are seeking to represent all consumers who have purchased Defendants’ “Finest Nutrition” brand Gingko Biloba, St. John’s Wort, Ginseng, and Echinacea. Eligible participants should contact us in order to join the case. For additional information, please call the litigation attorneys at Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP at (212) 300-0375.