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Money & Company

Lawsuit filed over Enfamil infant formula ads

By Tiffany Hsu
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Infant formula company PBM Products is suing a competitor, trying to stop what the company calls a ‘false and misleading’ ad campaign.

PBM filed suit in U.S. District Court in Virginia against Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. and Mead Johnson & Co., a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Mead Johnson makes the Enfamil LIPIL Infant Formula product.

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The suit accuses Mead Johnson of using false implications to undermine confidence in the store-brand formulas that PBM supplies to Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers.

‘Mead Johnson stands behind our products, our science, and our marketing,’ said spokesman Pete Paradossi. ‘We do not comment on issues in litigation.’

PBM alleges that Mead Johnson’s national ads tout the Enfamil product as being the only one that contains two specific nutrients, DHA and ARA, that promote brain and eye development in infants. According to the suit, some of the ads suggest that store-brand products will result in fuzzy vision and slower brain development.

But according to PBM, the the store-brand formulas are nutritionally comparable, if not identical, to Enfamil. Court documents filed by the company are available here and here.

-- Tiffany Hsu

Money & Company
Tiffany Hsu

Tiffany Hsu is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote about the California economy, fast food, restaurants, retail and alternative energy for the Business section. A Bay Area native, UC Berkeley graduate and eternal Nor-Cal fan, she once worked for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She also did a stint at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where she developed a passion for sweet tea. She still has faith that someday she’ll find two economists who agree.

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