Class Action Fairness Advocate Objects to Softsoap Class Action Settlement

A woman who is a Class Member of the $2 million SoftSoap class action settlement says that she objects to the settlement reached with Colgate-Palmolive Co. because the Class Members don’t receive any thing, almost all of the $2 million goes to the attorneys and the class representatives, with the remaining going to a charity that is closely tied with the lead attorney.

The objection was filed by objector Anna St. John in a New Hampshire federal court on Aug. 10. St. John is an attorney who works for the Center for Class Action Fairness.

St. John says that she doesn’t have any problems with the amount of the SoftSoap class action settlement, which resolves allegations that Colgate deceived its customers into thinking its Softsoap Antibacterial liquid hand soap was able to kill most common germs because it included the ingredient triclosan. Her issue is with how the money is being allocated.

Under the Softsoap class action settlement, which was reached in June, most of the money goes to attorneys’ fees and the five class representatives in the form of incentive payments.

“Here, we have a settlement where the class representatives will each get $2,500, the attorneys will get nearly $2,000,000, but class members get nothing except empty promises,” St. John wrote in her objection to the Softsoap class action settlement. “Class counsel is handsomely compensated for alleged wrongs committed against class members, while absent class members obtain negligible to no relief.”

Attorneys’ fees are typically about 25 percent of the total settlement fund, St. John explains.

In addition, the Children’s Health Fund is the charity that was picked to receive the rest of the settlement, but St. John claims that there is a conflict of interest with the charity chosen because it endorsed New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who is married to a named partner of the lead class counsel law firm, Shaheen & Gordon, P.A.

“Children’s Health Fund has previously given Senator Shaheen its 100% approval rating; the fact that her husband’s firm has now designated them as a cy pres recipient in a settlement of unrelated consumer fraud claims projects the appearance of logrolling,” she says.

The two other reasons that St. John gives as to why the charity chosen is improper is because “the Children’s Health Fund engages in ideologically polarizing activity,” and “a donation of class funds to the Children’s Health Fund is compelled speech that violates Class Members’ First Amendment rights.”

St. John says that the Children’s Health Fund supported Obamacare and has favored significantly more Democrats than Republicans in its ratings of lawmakers.

The Softsoap class action settlement includes a multidistrict litigation (MDL) and eight proposed class action lawsuits, which all took issue with liquid Softsoap, made by Colgate-Palmolive from 1992 to 2011, which the company said included the active ingredient triclosan that “was clinically proven to eliminate 99 percent of germs.”

All of the Softsoap class action lawsuits said that triclosan does not have the antibacterial capabilities that the Colgate-Palmolive claimed it did. The plaintiffs cited a scientific review by the Food and Drug Administration of triclosan, showing that the company’s claims about the active ingredient were false.

The FDA later banned companies from including the ingredient triclosan in its products in 2013, unless a manufacturer could prove its effectiveness.

However, because of Colgate-Palmolive’s claims, the plaintiffs say that they were convinced it was worth paying more for liquid Softsoap rather than settle for less expensive brands without triclosan.

As part of the deal, Colgate-Palmolive was also hit with an injunction, which St. John says isn’t much of a benefit for Class Members because “Colgate no longer sells Softsoap using triclosan and ‘has no present intention to reintroduce triclosan as an ingredient in its product.'”

Lucy J. Karl of Shaheen & Gordon PA is lead counsel for the plaintiffs, who are also represented by attorneys from Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, Climaco Wilcox Peca Tarantino & Garofoli Co. LPA, Holland Groves Schneller Stolze LLC and others.

Colgate-Palmolive is represented by Michele E. Kenney of Pierce Atwood LLP, Shon Morgan, Joseph Milowic, Isaac Nesser, Stephen A. Swedlow, Karin Kramer, Faith E. Gay and Margaret Caruso of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, Christopher J.M. Collings of Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Jill Garcia of Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC.

The Softsoap Class Action Lawsuit is In Re: Colgate-Palmolive Softsoap Antibacterial Hand Soap Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, Case No. 1:12-md-02320 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.