CVS pays $450,000 to settle with Pa. Attorney General
CVS will award customers with $3.50 worth of store credit coupons if they find expired products at the chain's Pennsylvania stores, part of a settlement with the state Attorney General's office.
CVS will award customers with $3.50 worth of store credit coupons if they find expired products at the chain's Pennsylvania stores, part of a settlement with the state Attorney General's office.
The settlement follows repeat cases in which state investigators found expired drugs, baby formula and dairy items on sale, the state says. Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy LLC has also agreed to pay $450,000 to settle an investigation by the Health Care Section of the state Attorney General's office, which found the company "violated a 2010 agreement in which it agreed to address concerns related to the sale of expired over-the-counter drugs, infant formula and dairyproducts," according to a statement by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
After a previous probe found expired products, the company agreed to put together a system to prevent that from happening again.
But agents for Kame's office found out-of-date products were still on sale, "including infant formula and drugs made for children, at five of the six CVS stores they visited."
In two cases, CVS staff even "bypassed a register prompt that was designed to prohibit the sale of expired products," the state alleged.
CVS agreed to again improve its training and internal compliance to keep the illegal sales from repeating.
CVS/pharmacy makes every effort to ensure that expired products are not sold to customers and we have a clear product removal policy and procedures in place at all of our stores to help ensure that items are removed from store shelves before they reach their expiration dates. Any unintentional deviations from this policy that are brought to the company's attention are quickly rectified for customers.
CVS issued the following statement: "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 agreement also commits CVS/pharmacy to continue our existing product removal and monitoring practices, employee training program, and the offering of enhanced discount coupons to customers who notify store employees if they discover certain expired products, among other things.
The Company has not admitted any liability or wrongdoing, and has entered into this agreement to avoid unnecessary expense, inconvenience or uncertainty of further investigation or legal proceedings."
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