Certain US consumers in the hair relaxer product industry have alleged that subsidiaries of Dabur India sold and manufactured hair relaxer products that contain certain chemicals and that the use has caused ovarian cancer, uterine cancer and other health issues in the users.
Dabur gave details of litigations pending in the US, against Namaste Laboratories LLC (Namaste), Dermoviva Skin Essentials Inc. (Dermoviva) and Dabur International Ltd. (DINTL), all of which are subsidiaries of Dabur India Limited.
Cases have been filed in both federal and state courts in the US and in Canada.
The federal cases were consolidated as a Multi-District Litigation, also referred to as MDL, before the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Dabur said.
Currently there are approximately 5400 cases in the MDL which name Namaste, Dermoviva and DINTL as defendants along with certain other industry players.
Namaste, Dermoviva and DINTL deny liability and have retained counsel to defend them in these lawsuits as these allegations are based on unsubstantiated and incomplete study.
Currently, the cases are in the pleadings and early discovery phases of litigation, which means the parties are challenging the adequacy of the plaintiffs’ complaints and, in some cases, exchanging requests for information and documents. There are various motions pending as well.
At this stage of the litigation, any financial implication due to settlement or verdict outcome cannot be determined.
However, the defenne costs for the litigation is expected to breach the materiality threshold, in the near future, Dabur said.
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