$17.5 Million Kimberly-Clark Flushable Wipes Settlement
On October 16, 2020, Stueve Siegel Hanson filed the nation’s first class action lawsuit against Kimberly-Clark Corp., the owner of popular toilet paper brand Cottonelle, relating to a recall involving a bacteria detected in Cottonelle’s Flushable Wipes products.
The case was filed after Amazon, Costco and numerous other retailers began warning customers who purchased certain Cottonelle Flushable Wipes that their products might contain a strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as Pluralibacter gergoviae which was detected during product testing.
After more than four years of litigation, on March 14, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted final approval to a class action settlement whereby Kimberly-Clark agreed to pay up to $17.5 million in cash reimbursements to consumers who purchased recalled lots of Cottonelle wipes. In addition, Kimberly-Clark agreed to separately pay for the costs of notice, settlement administration, and attorneys’ fees and expenses. The Court noted that the more than 3.1 million claims submitted with no objections supported the fairness and adequacy of the settlement.
"The reaction to this settlement has been overwhelmingly positive and we appreciate the Court's thorough analysis in approving it as fair, reasonable, and adequate," said co-lead counsel Austin Moore of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP. "We look forward to promptly distributing payments to class members."
