PEORIA, Ill. (Legal Newsline) - A lawsuit alleges two products, packaged together, would lead a consumer to believe both will treat cold and flu symptoms. The defendant's response?
"Plaintiff's claims are irreconcilable with Super C's label, which plainly states: 'THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO TREAT COLDS OR FLU.'"
Procter & Gamble filed a motion to dismiss in Illinois federal court on May 26, hoping to defeat a lawsuit that complains a convenience pack that puts DayQuil and a vitamin C booster together misleads customers into thinking the booster would treat cold and flu symptoms.
Plaintiff Jana Kampmann complains clinical studies have failed to demonstrate vitamin C's effectiveness on reducing the severity of colds and flu. P&G says it never said it would.
"Plaintiff's claims thus rest on the untenable theory that P&G misled consumers into believing that Super C treats colds or flu, when the label says precisely the opposite in all capital letters," the motion to dismiss says.
P&G offers DayQuil and Super C in a convenience pack, though they are also sold separately. It says the Food and Drug Administration allows for products to be packaged together and sold as a single unit.
Labels make it clear the two are different products, the company says. DayQuil is to be used to temporarily relieve common cold/flu symptoms like nasal congestion, cough, aches and pains, headache, fever and sore throat, its label says.
Super C's label says it helps replenish essential vitamins, along with the all-caps warning it does not treat cold and flu symptoms.
Should P&G convince Judge James Edward Shadid to toss the case, it would be another loss in Illinois for class action lawyer Spencer Sheehan. Judges there have become disgusted with Sheehan's consumer deception practice that has seen him file more than 440 lawsuits since January 2020.
One judge earlier this year called him a "wrecking ball," while another is deciding whether it is time for Sheehan to start paying the attorneys fees incurred by the defendants he sues.