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California county wins settlement from Bausch + Lomb over packaging
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Marin County, Calif., District Attorney Edward S. Berberian announced that Marin County Superior Court Judge Roy O. Chernus ordered Bausch + Lomb to pay $135,000 as part of a settlement over packaging for two consumer products.
According to a press release from Marin County, the lawsuit alleged that within the past 4 years Bausch + Lomb sold in California PeroxiClear hydrogen peroxide contact lens solution (3 oz.) and Alaway (ketotifen fumarate ophthalmic solution 0.035%) in, “oversized packaging that contained empty and nonfunctional space or slack fill.”
The press release defined slack fill as, “the difference between the actual capacity of a container and the volume of the product contained therein.”
In this civil consumer protection prosecution, the company was accused of failing to fully comply with retail packaging laws and falsely implying that the products filled the entire package.
The civil enforcement lawsuit was filed in Marin County, but brought by the district attorneys of Marin, Riverside and Yolo counties, so the three counties will split the civil penalties portion of $126,398 and apply it to further enforcement of consumer protection laws, the release said.
Bausch + Lomb declined to comment for this article; however, the press release stated that the company was, “cooperative throughout the investigation and swiftly took measures to eliminate or change any unlawful packaging for the affected products.”
The judgment will also apply to private label versions of the two products, excluding the Equate-branded version of Alaway. – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO