Umcka ColdCare, Umcka Cold+Flu False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit

Umcka ColdCare and Umcka Cold+Flu homeopathic products are falsely advertised as being “clinically proven” to treat cold and flu symptoms, but are “nothing more than a placebo, with zero or trace of the claimed ‘active ingredients,” according to a class action lawsuit filed against Nature’s Way Products and Schwabe North America.

North Carolina Plaintiff Brenda Grimes alleges in the Umcka class action lawsuit that she purchased Umcka ColdCare and Umcka Cold+Flu based on the Defendants’ advertisements that the homeopathic products are “Clinically Proven” to provide “Natural Relief” of “minor aches/pains, congestion, cough, fever, runny nose, [and] sore throat,” among other representations. However, the Umcka products did not work as advertised, she says.

The problem, Grimes alleges in the Umcka class action lawsuit, is that the active ingredients in Umcka ColdCare and Umcka Cold+Flu are so diluted that they are effectively “non-existent,” making them ineffective for their intended use.

“Consumers, trusting the Defendants’ assertions that the Product relieves the symptoms of the common cold and flu, are unwittingly spending tens of millions of dollars each year on worthless placebos,” the Umcka ColdCare class action lawsuit states.

The ingredients used in Umcka Cold+Flu and Umcka ColdCare “provide no health benefits,” the Umcka Cold+Flu class action lawsuit continues. “Moreover, at the stupendously high dilutions used to prepare the Product, they can have no effect of any kind in humans because the odds are astronomically high that even a single molecule derived from the original ‘extract’ of the ‘active ingredients’ could be present in the Product sold to consumers.”
Nature’s Way and Schwabe “know there are no or just trace amounts of active ingredients present” in the products, and “therefore must be aware that [they] cannot relieve any symptoms for which Defendants advertise them.”

The Umcka homeopathic product class action lawsuit is brought on behalf a nationwide consumer class and a North Carolina consumer sub-class consisting of all U.S. consumers who purchased Umcka ColdCare and Umcka Cold+Flu in the U.S. from January 1, 2008 to the present.

It is seeking damages, restitution and injunctive relief for breach of warranties, violation of the Magnuson-Moss Act, unjust enrichment, and violation of North Carolina’s and Wisconsin’s Deceptive Trade Practices Acts. It is also seeking a court-ordered corrective advertising campaign.

A copy of the Umcka ColdCare, Cold+Flu Homeopathic Product Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Brenda Grimes v. Nature’s Way Products, LLC and Schwabe North America, Inc., Case No. 12-cv-941, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin. The Plaintiff is represented by Ronald A. Marron and Skye Resendes of the Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron, APLC and Jeffrey M. Salas of Salas Wang, LLC.