CVS and Longs customers can get $2 coupon for finding expired items
CVS and Longs drugstore shoppers who find expired products lingering on California shelves will be able to claim a $2 coupon under a settlement announced Wednesday by the California attorney general’s office.
“CVS Pharmacy routinely sold expired baby formula, over-the-counter medication and dairy products long after the expiration date,” Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in a statement. The agreement also applies to Longs Drugs stores in California, which were bought by CVS Caremark Corp. in 2008.
CVS denied wrongdoing but has agreed to require bimonthly removal of expired products and improved employee training in its more than 800 California stores. The Woonsocket, R.I.-based retailer will pay $975,000 in civil penalties, attorney fees and costs.
The company said that no customers were harmed and that it was settling only to save time and expense.
Customers are limited to one $2 coupon for each visit during which they find an expired item on store shelves.
Prompted by complaints about old products at the two chains, the attorney general’s office launched an investigation in March 2008, spokesman Scott Gerber said. The agency sent people posing as customers to find items past their “sell by” date, Gerber said.
Gerber said the investigation also found that CVS pharmacies were leaving documents and prescription bottles that contained personal information in dumpsters.
Under the settlement, filed in a civil suit and judgment in San Diego County Superior Court, CVS agreed to ensure that prescription information is disposed of properly, Gerber said.
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