'Misleading' Nurofen pain relief range to be repackaged by March next year
Three specific-pain relief tablets — which have been sold at a higher price — remain on sale but with advice they are no different from conventional form.
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Hawke’s Bay
The maker of Nurofen has agreed to withdraw its specific-pain range products in their current packaging by next March.
This follows a Commerce Commission investigation into concerns that packaging of three specific pain range products – for migraine, period and back pain – were misleading and deceptive.
This followed legal action in Australia in which Reckitt Benckiser (Australia) admitted the Nurofen products (ibuprofen lysine) breached the Australian consumer law by representing that each product was specifically formulated to treat a particular type of pain when the products were identical.
The pain-specific range was sold at a higher price.
The commission says the New Zealand company has agreed to provide enforceable undertakings, These were introduced as part of the law changes in the Fair Trading Amendment Act 2013 and allow the commission to apply to the court to enforce an undertaking if a trader is not abiding by its terms.
The changes also brought in much higher penalties for breaches of the act.
In both countries, the products cannot be supplied in their current packaging beyond March 2016.
A temporary packaging arrangement has been agreed that will see the products being sold with amended labels that will disclose that the products are equally effective for other forms of pain.
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Nevil Gibson
Wed, 23 Dec 2015
Wed, 23 Dec 2015
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'Misleading' Nurofen pain relief range to be repackaged by March next year
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