Johnson & Johnson Carcinogenic Shampoo                                                                              

A woman from Illinois has filed two separate federal class action lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson and the cosmetics company Wella, alleging in the complaints that the companies sold dry shampoo products containing a known carcinogen, benzene, and did not disclose its presence on their labels.

The Lead plaintiff, a woman named Marina Scott, claims in her complaint that the dry shampoos sold under Johnson & Johnson’s OGX brand and Wella’s Sebastian brand contain “dangerous amounts” of benzene, which has been linked to leukemia and other cancers, but the carcinogen is not anywhere on the product’s label.

Scott alleges in her complaint that the absence of this ingredient on the label induced her, and others, to purchase it, stating that “[I] and other class members would not have purchased the products, or would have paid substantially less for the products, had defendant disclosed that the products contained or risked containing benzene, or otherwise not misrepresented that the products did not contain or were not at risk of containing benzene.”

In both suits, Scott claims laboratory and testing company Valisure tested for benzene in various dry shampoos in October, finding levels of benzene in both the OGX and the Sebastian shampoos that exceed the minimum allowed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration if the use of benzene is “unavoidable in order to produce a drug product with a significant therapeutic advance.” Thus, they knowingly left off the ingredient from the label, which would make both products adulterated and misbranded, and unable to be sold under federal law.

Scott’s complaints allege fraud, unjust enrichment and violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and various states’ consumer protection laws.

She seeks to represent all Illinoisans who purchased the products and subclass of all who bought the dry shampoos in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York or Washington.

A similar lawsuit filed in early December 2022, in Illinois federal court accuses Pierre Fabre USA Inc. of misleading and endangering consumers by not disclosing its Klorane brand of products contains benzene.

The putative class is represented by Carl V. Malstrom of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP, and Max S. Roberts, Sarah N. Westcot, Stephen A. Beck and Jonathan L. Wolloch of Bursor & Fisher P.A.

Counsel information for Johnson & Johnson and Wella could not be immediately determined. The cases are Scott et al. v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. et al., case number 1:22-cv-07069; and Scott et al. v. Wella Operations US LLC, case number 1:22-cv-07070, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. To see if you qualify to join this suit, please contact an attorney who can more properly evaluate your case on an individual basis.