CVS class action alleges company charged illegal tobacco surcharge

CVS tobacco surcharge class action overview:

• Who: Plaintiff Christopher Dubin filed a class action lawsuit against CVS Pharmacy Inc.
• Why: Dubin claims CVS illegally charged higher fees to health plan participants and their spouses due to their use of tobacco.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court.

A CVS employee has urged a California federal court to reject the company’s bid to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging it illegally charged higher fees to health plan participants and their spouses due to their use of tobacco.

Plaintiff Christopher Dubin argues the court should deny CVS’ motion to dismiss because he has standing to bring the claims, Law360 reports.

Dubin claims CVS imposed a $300 to $500 tobacco and nicotine surcharge on health plan participants and their spouses to receive health plan benefits without offering a reasonable alternative wellness program that would allow them to avoid the fee.

He also argues CVS failed to notify him that his spouse could avoid the surcharge, which he says is enough to establish standing, according to Law360.

“Plaintiff here alleges that he paid an unlawful tobacco/nicotine surcharge and therefore has an individual concrete and particularized injury-in-fact,” Dubin wrote, according to Law360. “And, defendant’s arguments to the contrary are unpersuasive.”

Lawsuit: CVS tobacco surcharge program didn’t meet requirements

Dubin alleges the CVS tobacco and nicotine surcharge program failed to meet federal requirements to provide a reasonable alternative standard that would allow participants to avoid the fee through a wellness program.

He claims CVS specifically failed to provide a reasonable alternative standard to spouses and domestic partners, limiting it only to CVS employees, Law360 reports.

In its motion to dismiss, CVS argued that Dubin misinterpreted the health plan’s language, which it says applied to employees, spouses and partners enrolled in the plan.

Dubin filed the class action lawsuit in June on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of consumers who were charged tobacco and nicotine surcharges under CVS health plans in the past six years.

He also seeks to represent a proposed California subclass of current and former CVS workers who were assessed a tobacco and nicotine surcharge, as well as a working spouse surcharge, during the same period, Law360 reports.

Meanwhile, CVS Health Corp. faced a class action lawsuit accusing the company of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending unsolicited telemarketing text messages to numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Have you ever paid a CVS tobacco surcharge? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by David P. Myers, Jason Hatcher and Andriana N. Bravo of The Myers Law Group APC.

The CVS tobacco surcharge class action lawsuit is Dubin v. CVS Pharmacy Inc., Case No. 2:25-cv-05931, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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