A putative class action filed Tuesday in federal court in Newark alleges Neutrogena, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, misled consumers by labeling sunscreen products as “sunblock,” “waterproof” and “sweatproof” despite FDA regulations banning those terms.
The plaintiffs, in Epstein v. Neutrogena Corp., 12-cv-7576, claim that the term sunblock is deceptive because the defendants knew or should have known that their products do not block all, or anything close to all, of the sun’s harmful rays, and that the terms waterproof and sweatproof are deceptive because defendants knew or should have known that the protection provided by their products diminished after exposure or immersion in water or sweat, and was thus not truly waterproof or sweatproof.
