MilliporeSigma Wins False Advertising Lawsuit Against Distributor of RephiLe Bioscience Lab Water Products
- Analis S.A. ordered to cease all illegal advertising following MilliporeSigma lawsuit
- Belgian distributor claimed RephiLe Bioscience’s lab water purification products were equivalent to MilliporeSigma’s
- Analis’ advertisements found misleading by Belgian court
MilliporeSigma, a leading science and technology company, today announced that it has prevailed against Analis S.A. in a lawsuit ordering the Belgium-based laboratory equipment distributor to cease advertising that compares RephiLe Bioscience Ltd.’s lab water products with the lab water products of MilliporeSigma. Analis distributes RephiLe’s products.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of this judgment, as it protects our customers’ interest and acknowledges the differentiated quality of MilliporeSigma’s products,” said Udit Batra, Member of the Executive Board, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, CEO MilliporeSigma. “For half a century, MilliporeSigma has been the partner of choice for water purification systems and services for laboratory scientists worldwide who require contaminant-free water.”
The Commercial Court of Liege (Belgium), division Namur, decided that neither Analis nor RephiLe could demonstrate that RephiLe products were equivalent to MilliporeSigma’s Millipore branded products, as claimed by Analis in its advertising. The court therefore ordered Analis to stop making the following claims: that the quality of products manufactured by RephiLe Bioscience is equivalent to MilliporeSigma’s products sold under the EMD Millipore brand; that analysis results of water produced by RephiLe Bioscience and MilliporeSigma products are equivalent and that RephiLe Bioscience-manufactured products were priced 30 percent lower than MilliporeSigma products.
The April 13, 2017 court decision stated that in the public health field, any product comparison must be confirmed by analysis based on “rigorous and strict good practice procedures.” The ruling found that Analis could not verify or support the equivalence statements that it made to its customers. Additionally, the court stated that MilliporeSigma is only allowed to inform the user that MilliporeSigma cannot guarantee the correct operation of its water purification system when equipped with purification cartridges from a third party company.