Charges laid over Nurofen specific pain range painkillers

Issued 26 September 2016
Release no. 35

Charges laid over Nurofen specific pain range painkillers

Reckitt Benckiser (New Zealand) Limited (RBNZ) faces 10 charges brought by the Commission alleging it misled the public about the nature, characteristics and suitability of its Nurofen specific pain range products.

All charges are under the Fair Trading Act 1986. Eight of these charges allege that the packaging and promotion of four different types of pain specific products were misleading. These products were:
Nurofen Migraine Pain
Nurofen Tension Headache
Nurofen Period Pain
Nurofen Back Pain

The other two charges allege that the advertisement of these products on RBNZ’s website www.nurofen.co.nz was likely to mislead or deceive consumers.

The Commission alleges that both the website and the packaging of these products gave the overall impression that the products were targeted to provide relief for a specific kind of pain. The Commission alleges this was misleading because the pain specific products contained the same ingredients and were equally effective in treating any of the types of pain specified.

Reckitt Benckiser has co-operated with the Commission’s investigation and noted it intends to plead guilty to the charges.

As this matter is before the Court, the Commission cannot comment further at this time.

Background
RBNZ distributes and markets a variety of health, hygiene and home products, including brands such as Nurofen, Dettol and Mortein. RBNZ is one of the main distributors of non-prescription pain killers in New Zealand.

RBNZ entered into Court Enforceable Undertakings with the Commission in December 2015 where it agreed to re-label the pain specific products. Products with the old packaging were removed from sale by March 2016. The website pages were taken down in July 2015.

In December 2015 the Federal Court of Australia found that Reckitt Benckiser (Australia) Pty Limited had engaged in misleading conduct in contravention of the Australian consumer Law by representing that the Nurofen Specific Pain products were each formulated to treat a specific type of pain when the products are identical.

Reckitt Benckiser (Australia) Pty Limited was fined $1.7 million in April 2016. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has filed an appeal against that penalty, with a hearing scheduled for November.

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