Reckitt Benckiser cops biggest fine ever after losing misleading Nurofen specialist painkillers appeal

April 5, 2017 4:53

Reckitt Benckiser has been handed the biggest fine in Australian consumer law history after the High Court rejected an appeal against a $6m penalty imposed for claiming Nurofen could target specific pain areas, ending a two-year court battle.

The ACCC launched action against Reckitt in March 2015 alleging that claiming different varieties of the product could target back pain, period pain, migraine pain, and tension headache were misleading.Last year the Federal Court ruled there was no evidence that could support the claims and handed down a fine of $1.7m.

However, the ACCC then appealed the fine, saying it was not large enough to act as a deterrent to a multi-national company of the scale of Reckitt.

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Simon Canning

Simon Canning was Mumbrella's marketing and advertising editor from 2015-2017. In a career spanning journalism and communications over more than 30 years Simon has become one of Australia’s most respected analysts and commentators on the advertising, marketing and media industries. A regular commentator on radio and TV, Simon has also worked in media in the US and UK .

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3 COMMENTS

Marc 5 Apr 17

Out of interest who is this fine paid to? Do consumers who bought the product get a refund?

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Elspeth 6 Apr 17

This is particularly misleading given how much extra they charge for these so-called ‘targeted’ products.

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honestly...? 6 Apr 17

Quote: “each of the products in the range is equally effective for the other pains…” in other words, this product is completely generic, yet was marketed as able to alleviate specific pains. Clearly Nurofen set out to deceive, and judging by the weasel words throughout the article, still don’t appreciate how terrible this behaviour is.

I hope there’s some Nurofen marketers somewhere having a good hard look at themselves, their ethics, and their employers’ moral code…

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