Airborne Lawsuit
The company that created Airborne, a dietary/herbal supplement once touted to prevent or ward off the common cold, settled a class action lawsuit for 23.3 million dollars. The suit was brought against them in March 2006, with the non profit group the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) joining the suit in late 2006 as co-counsel.
Airborne has sales of more than $300 million a year. The product was created by a teacher, Victoria Knight-McDowell. Many people purchased the product based on claims made by the company that were described in the class action lawsuit as false. In the words of the CSPI it just doesn’t work.
The ABC morning program Good Morning America launched an investigation into the product and its claims and into a supposed scientific study that was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of Airborne. It turns out that the study was done by two people who formed a venture to perform this study. In fact the one individual who claimed to be a graduate of Indiana University never graduated. This detail was revealed in today’s report on Good Morning America.
Airborne said they settled the class action lawsuit to avoid further distractions. Claims that the product can prevent or cure the common cold have been removed from packages. The company will pay for advertising in major media outlets to describe how consumers can get a refund for purchase of the product.
If you have receipts for your purchase of Airborne, the company will refund all of your purchases no matter how many made. If you don’t have receipts, the company will refund you for the purchase of six packages, estimated to be about $63 by the reporter on Good Morning America. Instructions and details of how to obtain your refunds will be included in the advertising done by Airborne.
The Federal Trade Commission and several states have initiated their own investigations into the company that produces Airborne based on the lawsuit.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Perhaps the company had foresight or just plain dumb luck. For a long time the company offered a “buy six, get one free” as long as you included the proof of purchase and original receipts. Any chance they kept those on file? If they did, they certainly are gone now. “Get one free-??” They got off lucky.