For Immediate Release: January 27, 2023
Contact: Jeff Dellinger, Director of Marketing & Communications
[email protected] - (716) 431-4435
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals wasted few words in denying Walmart and CVS’ request for rehearing or review of the court’s September 2022 ruling which legally recognized Center for Inquiry (CFI) as a consumer protection organization, and allowed CFI’s homeopathy fraud claims against both retailers to move forward.
After years of delays and appeals, the order clears the latest legal obstacle before CFI finally gets to take discovery in these matters and can hold these mega-retailers to account for the deceptive manner in which they market and merchandise homeopathic products alongside scientifically proven medicines.
“It’s the result we expected, but there’s always a worry until you hold the decision in your hands,” said Center for Inquiry vice president and legal director Nicholas Little. “Now we get to ask CVS and Walmart under oath just how much they make by peddling pseudoscientific nonsense, and what kind of deals they strike with the homeopaths that result in such prime shelf positions for products that simply don’t work.”
CFI originally filed suit against CVS and Walmart under Consumer Protection laws in the District of Columbia, citing a “continuing pattern of fraudulent, deceptive, and otherwise improper marketing practice… regarding the marketing and sale of homeopathic products.” The retail giants sought to have the cases dismissed, claiming CFI lacked the necessary legal standing to bring suit on behalf of D.C. consumers. After the trial courts agreed, CFI took its case to the DC Court of Appeals, which heard arguments in January 2022.
In September 2022, a unanimous opinion written by Senior Judge Phyllis D. Thompson reversed the lower courts’ rulings that CFI lacked standing; further, the opinion agreed with CFI’s argument that the placement of products on a store shelf does, in fact, communicate information to consumers that can potentially deceive them.
Little said, “The Appeals Court got it right—CVS and Walmart have to justify how they present these worthless junk products to consumers. It’s time for these mega-retailers to take a good look at their position, and to stop the pretense that homeopathy is real medicine and deserves to sit alongside science-based products that actually work on retail shelves.” This order will also allow discovery to move forward in CFI’s landmark suit against homeopathy manufacturer Boiron; that case had been stayed pending the appeals court response to CVS and Walmart. It now looks like it’s “full speed ahead” for CFI’s multi-pronged effort to hold homeopathy peddlers, and the retailers who prop up their pseudoscientific nonsense, fully accountable for misleading consumers.