'Honest isn't': Jessica Alba's nontoxic natural product company facing $5 million lawsuit after claims items they sell are ineffective and contain chemicals

  • Jessica Alba's The Honest Company is facing class action lawsuit
  • Claims the business has products which are ineffective and unnatural
  • Plaintiff wants customers who have bought five or more items reimbursed 
  • The Honest Company was set up four years ago and now worth $1.7 billion
  • John D Rubin, who has filed the claim is seeking $5 million in damages
  • The actress is worth $340 million 

By Zoe Nauman For Dailymail.com

Published: 22:38 EST, 3 September 2015 | Updated: 11:20 EST, 4 September 2015

Her business is valued at a huge $1.7 billion, and she has a net worth of a gigantic $340 million.

Which is just as well as Jessica Alba's The Honest Company is now under fire for not being quite as honest as they should be about the ingredients in their natural nontoxic products.

A customer has filed a class action lawsuit against the business, which makes an array of baby products including nappies to sunscreen, as well as household cleaners.

Scroll down for video 

Jessica Alba's The Honest Company is facing a $5 million class action lawsuit claiming customers have been paying over and above the cost of other comparable products that did not purport to be natural.'

John D. Rubin claimed Honest actually sells items that contain unnatural ingredients, as well as other products which are ineffective.

He summed up his allegations in the first two words of his complaint saying: 'Honest isn't.'

Rubin was asking for reimbursement as he claimed customers were paying over and above the cost of other 'comparable products that did not purport to be natural.' 

Block it: It came under fire recently because customers said they were still getting burned wearing their sunscreen

That's gotta hurt: One customer posted this photo of her burn after using the Honest Company's lotion, claiming that she 'got fried'

In the suit, according to Law360,  it was claimed Honest's hand soap, dish soap, diapers and multi-surface cleaner contained unnatural ingredients.

And it went on to say the company's sunscreen was ineffective, prompting customers to complain online about sunburn and blistering after using it.

Alba, and her co-founder Christopher Gavigan, did previously acknowledge there were some issues with the sunscreen in August.

It was announced they had reformulated it to improve the duration of its water resistance.

In a statement on their website it said: 'We’ve gone through extensive third-party testing in accordance with government regulations and our sunscreen lotion passed all SPF 30 testing requirements.

'It also received the best score possible from the Environmental Working Group.'

However Rubin is claiming breach of contract, violation of California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act, False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law, along with unjust enrichment. 

The Honest Company was started in 2012 with 17 products and now has more than 120 items, which are sold at more than 4,000 retailers across the United States and Canada. 

Alba recently revealed it was always 'part of the plan' to expand the company's range to cover beauty and skincare items as well as their parenting-oriented products.

She said: 'Beauty was always part of the plan. It was just a matter of when, how and being able to execute it properly. I didn't want to do this half-a**.'

Sprawling: The multi-level, factory-like headquarters in Santa Monica provides a colorful, open-plan for The Honest Company, which is focused on creating household products without toxins such as petrochemicals

Chief executive officer and fellow co-founder Brian Lee added: 'The size of the beauty market is much larger than the other categories we are claiming today, so does it have the potential to be larger than The Honest Company? Absolutely.'

The collection spans more than 80 individual items, with most part of the makeup range, although the beauty insists there is no one 'hero product'.

'There's no hero product; we tried to offer anything you could ever need,' she told Women's Wear Daily.

Child-friendly: In one corner of the office is a jungle gym for when the children of staff come to visit or need to be brought to work

'If women like one product, they're likely to try more. I will always try something that a girlfriend tells me she loves, way more than watching a commercial about it.'

The company has an impressive headquarters in Santa Monica, which focuses on creating products without toxins such as petrochemicals and synthetic fragrances.

'We started the company with this mission of helping to create a nontoxic world,' Lee, told Business Insider. 

'We strategically decided to go in baby and family first because we knew that was an area of awakening for a lot of mothers, like my own wife.' 

DailyMail.com contacted both The Honest Company and a representative of Jessica Alba for comment. 

Open plan: The factory-like setting even features garage doors that are raised when the weather permits (but it is Los Angeles)

 

 

 

Comments (142)

Share what you think

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

 View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now