Kroger Infants’ Acetaminophen Misleads Parents to Pay More Class Action

Shouldn’t two products that have basically the same contents also be priced alike? The complaint for this class action brings suit against Ralphs Grocery Company and its parent, the Kroger Company, for different prices on its Infants’ and Children’s acetaminophen products, which give parents the false impression that the two products are different.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all persons who bought Infants’ products at Ralphs stores across the US, for personal use. A California Subclass has also been defined, for people who bought the product at a Ralphs store in California.
 
Ralphs sells pain reliever and fever reducer under the Kroger label and brand name Over the Counter, including an Infants’ Pain & Fever Acetaminophen and a Children’s Pain & Fever Acetaminophen.

Acetaminophen can be dangerous or fatal if parents give their children too much. Parents therefore try to be very careful to choose the right product. However, the complaint alleges that Kroger exploits this fear by misleading consumers and getting them to pay higher prices than they should.

According to the complaint, the labeling of one product as “Infants’” and the other as “Children’s” suggests that the only proper acetaminophen for infants is the “Infants’” product. The Infants’ product can cost as much as three times the Children’s. However, it contains the same strength of medicine.

In former times, the two formulas were different. The Infants’ formula was more concentrated, because of the belief that it was easier to put a few concentrated drops into an infant’s mouth than to make them drink a small cupful of more diluted medicine. The Infants’ version contained a concentration of 80 mg per 0.8 mL or 80 mg per 1 mL, while the Children’s products had a concentration of 160 mg per 5 mL.

However, some parents were confused by the existence of the two different products. in some cases, when doctors recommended a certain amount of medicine, parents mistakenly gave their children that amount of the stronger Infant’s product instead of the weaker Children’s product. This caused the children to overdose.

The complaint alleges, “Between 2000 and 2009, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received reports of twenty (20) children dying from acetaminophen toxicity, and at least three (3) deaths were tied to mix-ups involving the two pediatric medicines.”

In 2011, the FDA announced that the Infants’ product would now contain the same amount of acetaminophen as the Children’s product, to prevent such errors. Since that time, the only differences between the two products are the dosing instrument (a syringe for infants, a cup for children).

The problem, the complaint says, is that the prices in many cases have not changed, with the formerly stronger Infants’ product still costing more than the now-identical Children’s product. The Infants’ designation leads consumers to believe that the Infants’ product is somehow designed specifically for infants.

The complaint alleges breaches of warranties as well as violation of consumer protection laws, among other things.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, Different Price for Same Products