First state action joins more than 12,000 similar lawsuits
Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit in state court late Thursday, alleging that L’Oréal violated Arizona’s consumer protection laws by marketing hair relaxer products without warning consumers about the alleged risks of ovarian and uterine cancers. Arizona is the first state to file such a lawsuit.
In marketing the products to women and children over decades, L’Oréal and associated companies “exploited centuries of social pressures and discriminatory beauty standards affecting people of African descent, all while prioritizing profit over consumer safety,” according to the lawsuit.
The products at issue have been sold under brand names including Dark and Lovely and Optimum, marketed as permanently straightening textured hair. The lawsuit says the products are used predominantly by African American women.
Arizona is seeking penalties and damages, as well as a court order that would force L’Oréal to stop selling the products unless it warns consumers about the cancer risk. The broader lawsuits seek damages to compensate women for pain and suffering, plus economic damages for medical bills and the cost of the products.
The state action arrives as L’Oréal faces more than 12,000 similar lawsuits filed by women or their families that have been consolidated in a Chicago federal court as part of multidistrict litigation, a procedure designed to more efficiently manage lawsuits filed in multiple jurisdictions. Trials in that proceeding could begin in 2027, court records show.
A spokesperson for L’Oréal did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Arizona lawsuit. L’Oréal has said its products are subject to rigorous safety reviews and that the company is confident the claims are without legal or scientific merit.
The first lawsuits reached court dockets after the 2022 release of a National Institutes of Health study that found women who used the products several times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer. Revlon, also named in similar lawsuits, has denied a connection between cancer and the products.