Pharmacy Daily | ACCC seeks $6m from RB

THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has urged the Federal Court to fine Reckitt Benckiser (RB) a whopping $6 million over its “misleading”marketing practices for Nurofen targeted pain relief. RB has already admitted to engaging in “contravening conduct” over the Nurofen Specific Pain range of analgesics (PD 14 Dec 2015), with a hearing yesterday part of the process to decide the penalties in the case. The company had made strong returns from the products according to ACCC barrister Katrina Banks-Smith who argued that there “needs to be some serious taking away of profit”. She told the court consumers had been financially harmed as the pain-specific products were sold at almost double the price of Nurofen’s standard range. “They purchased a product they thought was special and it wasn’t,” she said. “They were misled.” The interim measure of placing stickers on labels has been obscured in some supermarkets, she added, proving the company lacked a “culture of compliance”. RB barrister Matthew Darke said that a consumer who bought a product for specific pain relief got exactly what they paid for. Justice Edelman has reserved his judgement on the penalty until next week.

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