Class Action Against Standard Homeopathic Co. Will Move Forward
A federal judge in California certified a national class action lawsuit against Standard Homeopathic Co. for making false claims about the effectiveness of their supplements on Friday, August 1st.
The class action lawsuit, which has been in the works for two years, states that the homeopathic remedy manufacturer and its subsidiary Hyland’s Inc intentionally misled tens of thousands of consumers into believing that the supplements and remedies Calms Forte, Teething Tablets, Migraine Headache Relief, and Colic Tablets not only worked, but were made with “all natural” or “natural” ingredients, when, in fact, many of the supplements contained pharmaceuticals.
US District Judge Dolly M. Gee certified the class action lawsuit, which includes any customer who purchased Standard Homeopathic Co’s products from February 2008 to present, under California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
“Here, each class member’s claim for restitution involves a small sum of money, and the litigation costs would render individual prosecution of claims prohibitive,” Judge Gee wrote in the 43-page order certifying the class. “Courts considering similar cases routinely find that the class action device is superior to other forms of adjudication.”
Judge Gee rejected claims involving two of Standard Homeopathic Co’s drugs – ClearAc, an acne treatment, and Poison Ivy/Oak tablets, because the plaintiff who brought claims forth could not provide evidence of false claims.
The class action lawsuit began in February 2012 when plaintiff Kim Allen filed a lawsuit against Standard Homeopathic Co on behalf of herself and others. She said in her complaint that she purchased Calms Forte for “relief of simple nervous tension and occasional sleeplessness,” but she realized that the supplements had no active ingredients and were merely sugar pills.
“Homeopathy seeks to stimulate the body’s ability to heal itself by giving very small doses of highly diluted substances,” the plaintiffs wrote in a third amended complaint. “However, there is ‘little evidence’ that homeopathy is effective, much less that people understand homeopathic dilution principles.”
Three other plaintiffs accused Calms Forte of not being all-natural, as claimed on the packaging. “Calms Forte is, however, not “100% natural” because it contains magnesium stearate, a synthetic chemical, that is often used as a flow aid or tablet lubricant. In addition, Calms Forte contains biochemical phosphates that are synthetically derived or chemically reduced, such as Calcarea phosphorica, for which the HPUS states “is contained in bones (80%), and extracted from them by dissolving in hydrochloric acid and precipitating with ammonium hydroxide.”
The case is Kim Allen et al. v. Hyland’s Inc. et al., case number 2:12-cv-01150, in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
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