Boston, MA: A Massachusetts man has filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston, claiming injuries including loss of sense of smell and diminished sense of taste as a result of using Zicam Cold Remedy Gel.
The plaintiff, Russell Surette of Middlesex County, was acting on behalf of a national class of similarly situated consumers. He filed the lawsuit against the developer, manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of a homeopathic product known as Zicam Cold Remedy Gel.
The product was marketed and advertised to thwart or abate the onset of common cold and symptoms associated with it. Surette claims use of the product caused him and other consumers loss or diminishment of the senses of smell and taste and economic damage in the amount of the purchase price paid for the product.
The defendants--Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. and Zicam L.L.C., the developer, manufacturer and distributor of the product, located in Scottsdale and Phoenix, Ariz.; Botanical Laboratories, Inc., the manufacturer and packager based in Ferndale, Washington; and Costco Wholesale Corporation, the Everett, Mass., retailer of the product-- are alleged to have put a defective and unsafe product into the national stream of commerce including Massachusetts.
In doing so, the defendants are alleged to have breached warranties and misrepresented and misled Surette and the class members about the safety of Zicam Cold Remedy Gel and to have committed unfair and deceptive acts and practices in violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act and similar consumer protection laws in the other states.
Surette seeks compensation and other damages, on his and the class members' behalf, for permanent loss of the sense of smell and diminishment in his sense of taste, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and recovery of the price paid for the product.
