Hair relaxer class action over reimbursement for products can move forward, judge says
By Diana Novak Jones
Sept 30 (Reuters) -The judge overseeing the sprawling litigation over claims that chemical hair relaxer products made by L'Oreal USA, Revlon and others cause cancer refused to dismiss a proposed class action brought by consumers seeking reimbursement for products they say they would not have purchased had they known of the risks.
U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland in Illinois on Friday largely rejected L’Oreal, Revlon, Namasté Laboratories and other companies’ bid to dismiss the consolidated consumer class action, which seeks economic damages for the products purchased, punitive damages and medical monitoring funds for some plaintiffs who say they are at increased risk for uterine cancer and other health problems because of their use of the products.
The class action represents a different prong of the litigation over hair relaxer products, which includes thousands of lawsuits filed by women who say the products caused their uterine cancer and other health problems.
The proposed economic damages class would cover any U.S. consumer who purchased the products. The medical monitoring class would cover consumers in certain states who used the products at least four times a year and had not been diagnosed with uterine or ovarian cancer.
Attorneys for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday, nor did attorneys for the consumers.
The products, which include chemicals to permanently straighten textured hair, are typically marketed to women of color. The first lawsuits hit court dockets after the October 2022 publication of a National Institutes of Health study that found women who used the products multiple times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer.
In a statement posted online after the first lawsuits were filed, L'Oreal said it was "confident in the safety of our products and believe the recent lawsuits filed against us have no legal merit."
A Revlon representative previously told Reuters the company did not “believe the science supports a link between chemical hair straighteners or relaxers and cancer.”
Rowland has already rejected the companies’ separate effort to dismiss the injury claims in the litigation, which includes 8,500 lawsuits, according to recent data from the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
In November, Rowland said the plaintiffs had put forward sufficient facts to support their allegations accusing the companies of negligence, defective design of the products and failure to warn customers of the risks.
Reporting by Diana Jones
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