Colgate-Palmolive and its subsidiary Tom’s of Maine were hit with a consumer class action over allegations of deceptively marketing children’s fluoride toothpaste products by using candy flavoring, cartoon imagery and misleading packaging to encourage young children to swallow unsafe amounts of fluoride toothpaste.
Takeaway: Colgate-Palmolive was hit with a cluster of federal class actions in February. At least three suits were filed, two of which center on the company’s Tom’s of Maine toothpaste products. One contends that strawberry-flavored Tom’s of Maine Kid’s Natural Fluoride-Free Toothpaste contains unsafe levels of lead and arsenic, and the other alleges that certain toothpaste products were made with bacteria-contaminated water, as revealed in a November report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.