Harris Teeter class action claims retailer sells phenylephrine decongestants that don’t work

Harris Teeter class action overview: 

• Who: Harris Teeter, along with Reckitt Benckiser, Kenvue, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Procter and Gamble and Foundation Consumer Brands are facing a class action lawsuit from Plaintiff Stacy Rankin.
• Why: The defendants are accused of selling oral nasal decongestants with phenylephrine while knowing that the medications do not work.
• Where: The Harris Teeter class action was filed in federal court in Maryland.

Harris Teeter, Reckitt Benckiser, Kenvue, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Procter and Gamble and Foundation Consumer Brands are facing a class action lawsuit in federal court in Maryland claiming that they sold oral nasal decongestants with phenylephrine that they knew did not work.

There are more than 250 different phenylephrine-based decongestants accounting for 241.6 million sales in 2022 for $1.7 billion, according to the lawsuit.

The stores and companies continued to produce and sell the drug at a premium price despite knowing they were not effective when taken orally for nasal decongestion, the phenylephrine decongestants lawsuit claims.

“Since at least 2007, scientific studies using modern testing methodologies and rigors have, time and again, shown that phenylephrine taken orally is ineffective,” the Harris Teeter class action says. “However, rather than acknowledge the truth of these studies, manufacturers, like Defendants, have continued to market and sell their products with phenylephrine as effective decongestant medicine.”

Phenylephrine is convenient to purchase without restrictions placed on pseudoephedrine, lawsuit claims

Phenylephrine-based orally taken nasal decongestants became popular as pharmacies needed to put more restrictions in place to access pseudoephedrine drugs, which are used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

Those restrictions mean that often consumers have to request pseudoephedrine from the pharmacy counter, obtain it out of a locked case or sometimes give personal information before making a purchase.

That has led phenylephrine-based drugs to become more popular even though they are not effective, the phenylephrine decongestants lawsuit claims.

Each defendant in the lawsuit has a proposed nationwide class and a Maryland subclass.

Consumers have recently filed class action lawsuits against the manufacturers of oral flu and cold medicines containing phenylephrine as an active ingredient. 

Have you purchased phenylephrine from Harris Teeter? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Kevin Goldberg of Goldberg Law LLC and Mila F. Bartos of Finkelston Thompson LLP.

The Harris Teeter class action lawsuit is Rankin v. Harris Teeter LLC, et al., Case No. 8:23-cv-02864-TDC, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

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