The owner of Coppertone suntan products, pharmaceutical giant Merck, agreed to pay between $3 Million and $10 Million to settle a decade old class action. The lawsuit claimed that the company made false statements about the benefits of using its products. Many people felt that they had been misled by the company’s claims that its suntan products provided “all day protection”, that they were “waterproof”, or “sweat proof.”
Merck denied any wrongdoing as a result of the settlement, and they denied that anyone was injured as a result of their conduct. As with many big class action cases, the consumers are the one that really appear to be getting burned. Each consumer that joined the claim will be receiving a check from Merck for approximately $1.50.
Interestingly, Merck agreed that all of its suntan products manufactured after June 22, 2012 will not include the language “all day protection,” waterproof,” or “sweat proof.” So, you may be seeing Coppertone labels next summer like, “Use Coppertone because it smells the best!” or “Buy Coppertone – We guarantee you’ll get some sun!”
At Davis Law Group, we have been handling cases involving defective products for more than 20 years. Here is a link to some of our other posts about products cases.