A Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit has been filed by a California consumer who alleges that the company has violated multiple consumer protection laws. The lawsuit alleges that Banana Boat products are not natural despite their labeling.
Banana Boat False Adverting Lawsuit Calls Labels Into Question
The Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit says that the defendants violated California False Advertising Law, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the California Unfair Competition Law, and are responsible for unjust enrichment, negligent representation, fraud, and breach of express warranty.
The Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit says that the advertising statements in particular associated with this claim include “100% Naturally Sourced Sunscreens” and “Natural” on the exterior of the packaging. The use of these terms would lead consumers, according to the complaint, to believe that no synthetic ingredients are used.
Increasingly, consumers are interested in purchasing products without synthetic ingredients and are willing to pay a premium for this added benefit of the product, says the Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit. False advertising, however, may confuse consumers and cause them to feel duped if they ultimately discover synthetic ingredients inside.
The Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit says that the plaintiff purchased the products defined in the lawsuit from 2014 to 2015 across San Bernardino County and Orange County, California. The lawsuit says that the company knows that the use of their marketing materials is misleading to consumers, causing consumers to pay a premium for products that are marketed as natural. The misleading advertising lawsuit alleges that the defendants manufacture numerous sunscreen products that are promoted as natural despite the fact that they contain artificial and synthetic ingredients.
Some of these artificial and synthetic ingredients include glyceryl stearate, peg-8 dimethicone, peg-8 laurate, laurel peg-8 dimethicone, phenoxyethanol and caprylyl glycol. In 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated complaints against several cosmetic companies for representing that their products were natural when they contained one or more of the ingredients named above.
As a result of that FTC complaint, four companies agreed to discontinue the use of the word natural in their marketing materials. The Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit says that the sunscreen manufacturer is similarly misleading consumers with marketing materials.
A consumer in the Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit says that she would not have purchased the products at a premium price if she had known that the use of the word natural was deceptive, unfair, misleading, and false.
If you or someone you know believes you have grounds for a false advertising lawsuit, you need the experienced attorneys at Bradley/Grombacher to investigate the grounds for your claim. Fill out the form on this page to learn more.
The Banana Boat false advertising lawsuit is Fernandez et. al. v. Edgewell Personal Care LLC, Case No. 5:18-CV-00128-DMG-KK in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Note: Bradley/Grombacher is not representing the plaintiff in this lawsuit.
