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Maker Of Nurofen Fined In Court For Misleading Customers Over ‘Specific Pain' Range

Maker of Nurofen Fined $1.7 Million For Misleading Customers
Nurofen pain relievers targeting specific types of pain are seen on a pharmacy shelf in Sydney, Australia December 14, 2015. An Australian court has ordered British consumer goods maker Reckitt Benckiser to pull several of its Nurofen pain relief ranges from the market after finding its claims the products attacked particular types of pain was misleading. REUTERS/Jason Reed
Jason Reed / Reuters
Nurofen pain relievers targeting specific types of pain are seen on a pharmacy shelf in Sydney, Australia December 14, 2015. An Australian court has ordered British consumer goods maker Reckitt Benckiser to pull several of its Nurofen pain relief ranges from the market after finding its claims the products attacked particular types of pain was misleading. REUTERS/Jason Reed

The maker of Nurofen has been fined $1.7 million dollars for misleading customers over its “specific pain range” products.

Reckitt Benckiser, a British multinational that makes the Nurofen range, has been fined after being found by the Federal Court last year to have misled consumers over the products, which included drugs advertised as specifically targeting back pain, period pain, and tension headaches.

The court found that the range in fact all contained the same ingredient and were identical.

On Friday the Federal Court fined the drugmaker $1.7 million for breaching consumer laws.

This was far below the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which had asked the court to order a fine of $6 million for the breach.

Lawyers for Reckitt Benckiser reportedly argued in court that “rational” consumers wouldn’t think that products targeting particular types of pain would be more effective than regular products.

But barrister for the ACCC, Katrina Banks-Smith SC, argued that the company made “substantial profits” from its marketing of the products.

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