CVS Pharmacy, LLC agreed to pay a Consumer Protection Settlement worth $450,000 over expired products. The settlement comes after repeated cases in which health investigators found expired products such as drugs, baby formula and dairy items.
CVS will also give customers $3.50 credit coupons if they find expired products in its stores. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane stated that the agreement has been reached to address customer complaints about expired products.
In 2010, CVS signed an agreement about selling expired medicines, infant milk formula and dairy items. The company agreed to implement a system to make sure its chains will not sell expired products. After investigation of the attorney general's officers, they still found products exceeding their shelf lives being sold to customers in five of six stores.
The officers reported that in two cases they investigated, employees even bypassed and altered a register prompt that was installed to prevent the selling of expired products.
In 2013, CVS faced a similar case in Maryland. The company paid $250,000 penalty as part of a settlement with Maryland over selling expired products and improperly disposing patient information. Just as the present case, they gave customers discount coupons lest they find expired products in the pharmacy's chains.
CVS issued a statement stating they agreed to the penalty but denied involvement in any wrongdoing. The company stays firm in its effort to guarantee that expired products are barred from being sold to customers.
"Our agreement with the State of Pennsylvania resolves allegations that a limited number of our stores were found to be non-compliant with the previous agreement between CVS and Pennsylvania," the company said.
The company added that they are committed to continue existing policies to remove existing products, monitor practices, to train employees and to offer enhanced discount coupons to customers.
The Attorney General's Office recommends that the company should have an effective policy on expired product procedures to ensure that no other cases will be reported in the future. The office urged CVS to conduct annual trainings for employees responsible for stocking and conducting inventories of all dairy products, over-the-counter medicines and infant formulas.
Photo: Elvert Barnes | Flickr
