On Monday, Michael Toporek filed a class action lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York against Walgreen Co. alleging deceptive and misleading trade practices in association with its lidocaine patches.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff and members of the class bought lidocaine patches in reliance on Walgreen’s marketing and advertising, which claims that its lidocaine patches provide “pain relief,” that is “maximum strength,” through a “stay-put flexible patch,” that will work for “up to 12 hours.”
However, the plaintiff argues that these claims are false and misleading. Toporek argues that, despite proper application, within a short time, the lidocaine patches commonly fall off of consumers’ bodies and do not stay put for 12 hours to provide the represented maximum strength pain relief, thus depriving consumers of the advertised benefits. Further, he argues that Walgreens’ claims that the lidocaine patches are “maximum strength” are false and misleading because Walgreen’s patches only contain 4% lidocaine despite other lidocaine patches on the market containing 5% lidocaine.
Toporek alleges that he and other class members paid a premium for the lidocaine patches based on the false representations by Walgreen Co. and thus suffered an injury in the amount of the premium paid.
The complaint alleges that the defendant’s deceptive and misleading marketing is in violation of New York General Business Law, in breach of express warranty and in violation of the principles of unjust enrichment. Therefore, the plaintiff seeks class certification, injunctive relief, disgorgement of funds, monetary damages, treble, punitive and statutory damages, including damages of $50 per transaction and treble damages for knowing and willful violations, and statutory damages of $500 per transaction, attorney’s fees and costs.
The plaintiff is represented by the Sultzer Law Group P.C.
