Jessica Alba and her The Honest Company partners have agreed to settle a false advertising class action lawsuit over ingredients in their cleaning products.
A Missouri housewife filed the suit after traces of sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) were found in the brand's laundry detergents and other products during a Wall Street Journal-sponsored test.
The actress has always maintained the harmful foaming agent is not an ingredient in her firm's family-friendly and eco-conscious items, and urged consumers to avoid SLS in her 2013 book The Honest Life, calling it a toxin and revealing it gave her an allergic reaction.
Plaintiff Margo Smith claims Honest "deceptively marketed its popular consumer liquid laundry detergent, dish soap, multi-surface cleaner and other products" as not containing SLS after "significant amounts" of the cleaning chemical was discovered during testing in March (17).
The Honest Company executives responded to the publication's report by insisting they used sodium coco sulfate (SCS), which can only be made from raw coconut oil, instead of SLS.
The test authors insisted that SCS always contains SLS, in addition to other compounds, which Smith also states in the new class action complaint. Honest bosses insist SLS and SCS are not the same.
However, Alba and her partners have now agreed to pay out over $1.5 million to settle the claim, according to the Daily Mail.
A statement reads: "We vigorously deny any and all allegations alleged in the lawsuit - specifically that any of our cleaning products contain SLS. However, given the fact that continued litigation could be protracted and expensive, we have settled this lawsuit to limit further costs and distraction to our business.
"We stand behind the safety and effectiveness of our products and the responsibility we have to our consumers, and are gratified by the loyalty of both our customers and retail partners.
"As a modern brand, we are always focused on progress and innovation and remain committed to making purposeful changes to update and improve our products. We are constantly listening to our customers, hearing their needs and desires, and making continual product upgrades for aesthetics and overall product experience."
The Honest Company bosses also revealed they are on the verge of launching "a new breakthrough cleaning line", which utilizes "an advanced sugar-based surfactant technology".
This isn't the first time Alba's firm has been hit with legal action over products - a lawsuit concerning the company's mislabelling of products as "natural" was filed in New York in February (17), and last year (16), The Honest Company was hit with two class action lawsuits over ineffective sunscreen.
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