OAKLAND, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – Clorox says the woman complaining in court that it’s Splash-Less products aren’t strong enough never bothered reading their labels.
The company on Oct. 8 attacked the class action lawsuit of Shana Gudgel and her lawyers at Levinson Stockton, Wright Law Office and Telfer Faherty. They filed suit in August in a California federal court, complaining that Splash-Less gel-like bleach doesn’t disinfect or protect against COVID-19.
Clorox counters the product is advertised for laundry and other uses to whiten, brighten and deodorize.
“The core problem for plaintiff is that her own allegations disprove her claims,” lawyers at Covington & Burling wrote for Clorox.
“The Splash-Less label at issue, in contrast to the Regular-Bleach label, made no disinfection or sanitization claim— dooming plaintiff’s theory that Clorox affirmatively misrepresented the properties of the Splash-Less product.
“What is more, the Splash-Less label expressly disclosed that the product is ‘[n]ot for sanitization or disinfection. To sanitize and disinfect, use Clorox® Regular-Bleach.’ Plaintiff cannot proceed with a fraudulent-omission theory of deception when the label makes the very disclosure she complains was omitted.”
The lawsuit claimed Clorox misled customers into thinking the thicker product was just as strong as regular bleach.
“Confusion between the products by consumers has become more common amid the coronavirus pandemic,” the suit says. “Customers have claimed the ‘very similar’ designs have led to repeated purchases of the wrong formula.”