Dollar General Class Action Says Customers Scammed by Fake Aloe Gel

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.

Two women from Illinois are accusing Dollar General of selling a store-brand aloe vera gel that actually contains no aloe vera whatsoever.

Plaintiffs Thera Lambert and Amy Connor are challenging the store chain over its DG Body Soothing Aloe Gel. Defendant Dollar General labels this product as containing “aloe barbadensis leaf extract,” they say. However, the plaintiffs claim that testing by an independent laboratory found no aloe vera in this product.

In their Dollar General aloe gel class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs include photographs of the labels from the products at issue. On both the 6-ounce tube and the 16-ounce bottle, the labels’ ingredients list says the product contains “aloe barbadensis leaf extract.”

Lambert and Conner decided to verify the product’s aloe content for themselves. According to this Dollar General class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs’ attorneys arranged to have the products at issue tested to confirm whether or not they actually contain aloe vera.

Chemical testing for aloe vera content determines whether the product contains a substance called acemannan, the plaintiff say. They quote the International Aloe Science Council as stating that “[p]roducts that do not contain Acemannan are not considered to be true aloe vera.”

The plaintiffs say testing of Dollar General’s store-brand aloe gel revealed it contains no acemannan – and therefore no real aloe vera.

“Based on these test results, Defendant’s descriptions of its Product as containing ‘Aloe’ or ‘Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract’ are false, deceptive, and misleading,” the plaintiffs say.

Both Lambert and Connor say they purchased Dollar General aloe vera gel at various times in 2015 and 2016. They claim they would never have bought the gel if they had known it does not actually contain aloe vera. The lack of real aloe vera gel in the product makes it essentially worthless, according to their Dollar General class action lawsuit.

Lambert and Conner are proposing to represent a nationwide plaintiff Class that would encompass all persons in the U.S. who purchased DG Body Soothing Aloe Gel within four years of the filing of this action.

A proposed subclass would represent Class Members in the specific states of California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

The plaintiffs are asking for a court order barring Dollar General from continuing the allegedly false advertising complained of. They also seek an award of actual and statutory damages, restitution of revenues improperly gained, and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Jeffrey A. Berman and Brian J. Wanca of Anderson + Wanca, in association with attorneys from Barbat Mansour & Suciu PLLC, Kohn Swift & Graf PC, Sommers Schwartz PC, The JTB Law Group LLC, Greg Coleman Law PC, Ram Olson Cereghino & Kopczynski LLP, Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group, Levi & Korsinsky LLP, and Turke & Strauss LLP.

The Dollar General Fake Aloe Vera Gel Class Action Lawsuit is Thera Lambert, et al. v. Dollar General Corp., Case No. 1:16-cv-11319, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.