johnson & johnson accused of misleading consumers

fresno, calif. tricking consumers will cost the makers of bandaids, baby shampoo, and ben gay 506,000 after fresno county prosecutors caught them in the act.&quotit&39s obvious this tactic works because major manufacturers are doing it,&quot said abc30 legal analyst tony capozzi. johnson &amp johnson is accused of using deceptive packaging amounting to fraud against people in california.fresno county prosecutors say johnson &amp johnson and neutrogena have been misleading customers into believing they were getting more of a product than they really were by using false bottoms or false sides in their packaging.a stroll down the aisles of any grocery store will reveal dozens of johnson &amp johnson products. from the signature baby shampoo to tylenol for pain relief or rogaine to stop hair loss, the company sold 71 billion worth of products in 2013. but fresno&39s district attorney says johnson &amp johnson has been breaking the law to sell products in california. objects in their boxes may be smaller than they appear.&quotthe fact that the product the box or the container looks bigger is going to attract the eye of the buyer and it&39s going to be grabbed quickly and thrown into the shopping cart,&quot capozzi said.fresno&39s da&39s office teamed up with prosecutors in five other counties and the ag department to evaluate packaging. as action news reported in october, they did the same thing with cvs products forcing the pharmacy to pay almost a quarter million dollars. johnson &amp johnson is paying more than twice as much for its violations. the money goes to the counties fresno, yolo, shasta, san joaquin, sacramento and contra costa but capozzi says it&39s not a class action consumers won&39t directly receive anything.&quotwhat it is is an action by the da on behalf of society as a whole to stop a deceptive practice by certain manufacturers,&quot capozzi said.consumer experts say the deception usually has to be obvious and repetitive for prosecutors to take action. the da who negotiated this deal for two years tells us the goal was to protect people from bogus boxes and plastic containers, as well as to reduce environmental waste.johnson &amp johnson has two years to repackage its products distributed anywhere in california. the company did not respond to my calls, emails and social media requests for comment. after the cvs story in october, we heard a lot of complaints about other deceptive packaging.in fresno county, you can file a consumer complaint form with the da&39s office. just follow this link httpbit.ly1b2yrng&nbsp