Blistex Urges Judge to Dismiss Medicated Lip Ointment Class Action

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Last week, Blistex Inc. urged an Illinois federal judge to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging its Medicated Lip Ointment tubes are deceptive because their design makes it such that consumers cannot access nearly 25 percent of the product contained in the tube.

Plaintiff Alana Hillen filed the Blistex class action lawsuit earlier this year, alleging tubes of Blistex Medicated Lip Ointment are packaged in such a manner that consumers are required to throw out a significant portion of the product and buy more to replace it.

Blistex sells lip ointments in a variety of packages, but Hillen specifically takes issue with the Blistex Medicated Lip Ointment that is packaged in a squeezable tube. Blistex purposefully designs the Medicated Lip Ointment so that consumers are unable to use the entire content of the product, forcing them to purchase more Blistex, the deceptive packaging class action lawsuit alleges.

In its motion supporting its April 5 motion to dismiss the lip ointment packaging class action lawsuit, Blistex argues that Hillen’s claims are not viable.

“Plaintiff argues that she could not obtain all of the ointment from the tube as easily as she would have liked to and therefore Blistex must either use her preferred tube design (whatever that may be) or append a disclaimer to its package specifying the exact amount of product (which would naturally vary by consumer) that can be obtained with ease,” Blistex argues.

“Whatever Plaintiff’s actual motivations in bringing this case may be, her claims are not legally viable,” Blistex continues.

Blistex argues that the medicated lip ointment dispenser has a functional purpose: to allow consumers to apply the product without using their fingers. Further, the package design at issue in the lip ointment packaging class action lawsuit has been in use by Blistex and competing ointment companies for more than 25 years, according to Blistex.

Further, Blistex disputes Hillen’s claim that the allegedly inaccessible ointment that remains in the tube somehow unjustly enriches Blistex. The ointment tubes display an accurate net weight, the company argues. Therefore, consumers are receiving the exact amount of product they expect.

“To the extent Plaintiff believed that the entire contents of the tube could be easily obtained, that belief is nowhere attributed to a statement Blistex made,” the motion states. “Blistex shows exactly what the tube looks like on its packaging. At best, Plaintiff points to the net weight, which is accurate and required by law.”

Product manufacturers do not have a duty to disclose the amount of product that is easily accessible; therefore, Hillen’s fraud by omission claim fails, Blistex argues.

The lip ointment company urged the judge to dismiss the medicated lip ointment packaging class action lawsuit because the plaintiff lacks standing to bring her claims, or because she has failed to state a claim for relief.

Hillen is represented by Robert J. Pavich of Pavich Law Group PC and Charles J. Zimmerman, Michael J. Laird and Caleb Marker of Zimmerman Reed LLP.

The Blistex Medicated Lip Ointment Packaging Class Action Lawsuit is Alana Hillen v. Blistex Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-02074, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.