Class Action Claims Unisom Simple Slumbers Falsely Marketed as ‘Natural’

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A proposed class action alleges that Unisom Simple Slumbers, a line of sleep-aid dietary supplements, are misleadingly marketed as “natural” because the products contain several artificial ingredients.

The 33-page lawsuit argues that, despite having the tagline, “Get A Good Night’s Sleep, Naturally,” Unisom Simple Slumbers’ primary ingredients, melatonin and vitamin B6, are synthetic and therefore cannot “naturally” help a consumer get a good night’s sleep. According to the suit, the supplements, which come in Midnight Raspberry and Golden Honey-Lemon flavors, are made with two additional synthetic ingredients, citric acid and sodium citrate.

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The case claims that the makers of Unisom Simple Slumbers, Chattem, Inc., Sanofi-Aventis US LLC and Sanofi US Services Inc., have deceptively adopted this “natural” branding strategy to market their supplements to a growing number of consumers seeking products free of highly processed, artificial ingredients.

According to the suit, the supplements’ front labels display images of flowers, raspberries, lemons and honey, as well as the color green, to reinforce the idea that the product is natural. The complaint argues that, as a result of these misrepresentations, reasonable customers are led to expect that the supplements are made with ingredients that undergo minimal processing when this is not the case.

Per the suit, melatonin is chemically synthesized in a lab and vitamin B6 is synthesized using petroleum ester and hydrochloric acid with formaldehyde. Sodium citrate is synthetically created by mycological fermentation of crude sugar stocks, and citric acid is a chemical preservative industrially manufactured via microbial fermentation, the filing relays.

The lawsuit says that many companies like the defendants have chosen to “greenwash” their products in an effort to save on costs while still taking advantage of a growing demand for “natural” products. This practice is intended to mislead consumers by using the color green and other natural imagery as a “visual cue used to trigger implicit ecological and natural inferences” so that the products falsely appear to be made with organic ingredients or environmentally friendly production standards, the complaint contends.

Buyers would not have bought the products or would have paid substantially less for them had they known that the supplements were made with artificial ingredients, the case asserts.

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone in the United States who purchased the Unisom Simple Slumbers for personal use anytime until the date notice is disseminated.

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