Two Attorneys General Cite CVS for Selling Expired Products
Attorneys General in New York and California have demanded in the last several months that CVS stop offering expired baby formula, milk and medication for sale. The actions are only the latest in a string of regulators’ attempts to protect the public from CVS’s pattern of selling out-of-date products.
New York Attorney General Finds Expired Goods at CVS – Again
In June, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo took legal action against CVS after undercover investigators found expired products in 142 CVS stores across New York State. Of the CVS stores his staff visited, sixty percent had expired products on the shelves, including Nuprin, CVS brand Junior Pain Relief, Enfamil infant formula, CVS brand cough syrup and antifungal cream. “The widespread nature of these violations indicates that CVS maintains an implicit company policy to maximize profits through the selling of expired goods to the public,” according to the Attorney General’s office.
CVS called Cuomo’s findings “unacceptable to us,” and said, "We will work aggressively to ensure that our review and removal procedures are followed consistently." The chain promised to cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation.
However, a week later, Cuomo’s staff found expired products on CVS shelves in the Syracuse area. “It doesn’t take a week to pull products off a shelf,” Cuomo told a Syracuse newspaper. “And it wasn’t supposed to happen in the first place.” Then, two weeks after announcing the initial findings, the Attorney General reported that there were still expired products on the shelves in half the stores his staff had checked in follow-up visits. “From my point of view, this suggests that the corporations are not taking responsibility,” Cuomo told reporters and announced plans to sue to force CVS to remove expired goods from its shelves.
CVS Violates Agreement With New York Attorney General
By selling expired over-the-counter drugs, CVS was breaking an earlier, legally binding agreement with the Attorney General. In 2003, the Attorney General had caught the chain selling expired drugs, and CVS had signed an “Assurance of Discontinuance,” promising to refrain from the practice and institute safeguards to prevent it from recurring. The Attorney General had found expired medications at CVS stores in suburban Westchester County and Manhattan, including CVS children’s non-aspirin pain reliever, CVS topical anti-infection ointment and CVS ibuprofen tablets.
CVS paid a civil penalty of $3,500 and agreed to ”refrain from selling or offering for sale over-the-counter medicines after the expiration dates listed on the products’ packaging” and “institute procedures to ensure that expired over-the-counter medicines will be identified and removed no later than the expiration dates listed on the packaging.”
California Attorney General Finds Expired Products at CVS
Meanwhile, also in June 2008, California Attorney General Jerry Brown investigated CVS stores in Southern California in response to consumer complaints. His staff found expired products on the shelves at 26 CVS stores in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. As in New York, the expired goods included baby formula, over-the-counter medicines, milk and eggs. "CVS Pharmacy should immediately pull these expired products from its shelves and ensure that these consumer safety violations do not occur again," Brown said.
