Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
B.C. cold medicine class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Hardeep Dhaliwal has filed a class action lawsuit against a number of oral cold medicine manufacturers and retailers who sold the products.
- Why: Dhaliwal claims the oral cold medicine products were misleadingly marketed as being effective as a decongestant, despite containing phenylephrine, which he argues was just confirmed by the FDA as being ineffective at the current recommended dose.
- Where: Canada, excluding Quebec.
Manufacturers and retailers sold popular oral cold medicines to Canadian consumers that are ineffective as a decongestant, on account of them containing phenylephrine, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
The complaint comes in the wake of an independent advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determining in September that oral phenylephrine is ineffective as a decongestant at its current recommended dosage.
Plaintiff Hardeep Dhaliwal claims the FDA findings means a number of companies and retailers have therefore made false and misleading representations about their oral cold medicines that contain phenylephrine, reports the Vancouver Sun.
Drug manufacturers Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, and Reckitt Benckiser are reportedly named as defendants in the class action lawsuit, along with retailers Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart Canada, Amazon, London Drugs, and Loblaws.
Dhaliwal wants to represent a class of Canadian consumers who have purchased any oral cold medicines containing phenylephrine to treat nasal congestion since Dec. 31, 1989, reports the Vancouver Sun.
Oral cold medicines with phenylephrine not able to relieve stuffy noses as advertised, says class action
Phenylephrine is used in a number of popular oral cold medicines, including Benylin, DayQuil, Tylenol, NeoCitran, Robitussin, and Mucinex, the cold medicine class action lawsuit alleges.
Despite containing phenylephrine, Dhaliwal argues the oral cold medicines were marketed as being able to relieve stuffy noses, with the defendants allegedly omitting that “there was little or zero bioavailable phenylephrine in the cold medicines.”
Dhaliwal claims the drug manufacturers and retailers were unjustly enriched and violated the federal Competition Act and a B.C. Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, reports the Vancouver Sun.
The plaintiff is reportedly asking for class members to be refunded for the amount they paid for the oral cold medicines containing phenylephrine, in addition to an award of moral and punitive damages.
In a similar case, a class action lawsuit was filed against Bausch Health Companies in March 2020 over claims it misleadingly labeled that its COLD-FX products were “Proven by Science” to prevent and cure illnesses, such as the cold and flu.
Have you purchased an oral cold medicine containing phenylephrine? Let us know in the comments!
Don’t Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
12 thoughts onB.C. class action alleges cold medicine manufacturers, retailers sold ineffective phenylephrine medications
This is scary I use this more than enough
I’ve purchased them for many years and realized they weren’t helping it’s a shame that we spend millions of dollars on OTC drugs and they are not worth the money spent on them.