BELLEVILLE — A woman has filed a class action against Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Inc. for alleged defects in "U by Kotex" tampons.
Lisa Moore filed the lawsuit claiming the product comes apart upon removal, according to a complaint filed Dec. 3 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
Moore claims the defect spans all absorbancies of the tampons and causes infections, irritation, injuries and other symptoms.
"The Defect renders the Products unsuitable for their principal and intended purpose and therefore the Products are completely worthless at the point of purchase," the complaint states.
Moore claims the defendant is unjustly enriched at her and the class members' expense and that the company has breached its implied warranty of fitness.
Because of the claimed defect, Kimberly-Clark issued a recall on regular absorbency U by Kotex Sleek Tampons in December 2018 that were manufactured between Oct. 7, 2016, and Oct. 16, 2018, and were distributed by Oct. 17, 2016, and Oct. 23, 2018, according to the suit.
Moore claims Kimberly-Clark's recall is an admission of the defect, but that the recall was insufficient as it only contained the one product and absorbency of tampon and not the other products and other absorbencies that consumers had complained of.
She claims the recall also was ineffective because it only contained specific lot codes and not all of the products it should have encompassed.
Seh further claims Kimberly-Clark was on notice of the product defect for several years and did nothing about the defect.
"As far as 6 years ago, numerous consumers posted product reviews about the Product's defective nature on Kimberly Clark's website...which Kimberly-Clark actively monitors," the complaint states.
Moore claims the defendant also breached its implied warranty of fitness and merchantability because the products are completely unusable and were dangerous to the health of consumers.
"Defendant admitted that the Products were completely unusable and unfit for normal use when it initiated the recall..." the complaint states.
Moore is seeking compensatory and punitive damages with pre-judgment interest. She is represented by David C. Nelson of Nelson & Nelson; and Scott A. Bursor, L. Timothy Fisher, Blair E. Reed and Yeremey O. Krivoshey of Bursor & Fisher.
St. Clair County Circuit Court Case number: 19-L-0846