CVS ‘Made in USA’ Vitamin C Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed

On Monday, an Illinois federal judge dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging CVS Health Corp. and CVS Pharmacy Inc. sold vitamin C supplements that were misleadingly labeled as “Made in USA,” finding the plaintiff failed to show he suffered any harm.

In the CVS class action lawsuit filed in August 2016, plaintiff D.D., alleged the vitamin C supplements sold by CVS were deceptively labeled because they stated they were “Made in USA” even though the supplement was allegedly sourced from foreign countries.

The CVS class action lawsuit asserted violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, unjust enrichment, and violations of similar consumer fraud statutes in eight other states.

The product at issue in the CVS class action lawsuit is called “Assorted Citrus Vitamin C Supplement Drops.” D.D. claims he purchased this vitamin C supplement, which its packaging indicates is “Made in USA,” several times between November 2015 and June 2016. He claims that other products sold by CVS are also mislabeled regarding the source of the product.

D.D. says he is willing to pay a higher price for products that are made in America, and claims he overpaid for the vitamin C products because they were not actually American-made despite being labeled as such. He claims he is likely to be injured in the future because several CVS items inaccurately state the source of the product.

In Monday’s order dismissing the CVS class action lawsuit, U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah disagreed with D.D. that he had been harmed.

“Plaintiff merely alleges that he prefers products made in the United States and that he is willing to pay a premium for them,” Judge Darrah wrote in the order. “However, Plaintiff does not allege that the Supplements were more expensive because they were marked ‘Made in U.S.A.’”

Further, Judge Darrah found that D.D. would be unlikely to purchase the allegedly mislabeled products from CVS in the future.

“Plaintiff is now aware that Defendants allegedly deceptively label products as ‘Made in U.S.A.’ and, as such, is not likely to be harmed in the future,” the judge wrote in his order dismissing the CVS class action lawsuit.

According to Judge Darrah’s order, D.D. will have 30 days to file an amended CVS class action lawsuit.

In addition to seeking dismissal of the Vitamin C class action lawsuit, CVS also sought to strike Class allegations. However, Judge Darrah found that the issue of whether Class certification was appropriate is premature and should be handled at a later stage in the litigation.

D.D. sought to represent a Class of consumers in Illinois and other states with similar consumer protection statutes who purchased CVS-branded products with vitamins that were labeled as “Made in USA” or “USA-sourced.”

D.D is represented by John E. Norris of Davis & Norris LLP and Gerald Bekkerman and Jennifer Bekkerman of Bekkerman Law Offices LLC.

The CVS Vitamin C Supplement Labeling Class Action Lawsuit is D.D. v. CVS Health Corp., et al., Case No. 16-cv-5973, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.