CeraVe Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Claims It Contains a Known Carcinogen

Cosmetic giant L’Oréal USA, LLC has found itself in some legal hot water after customers filed a class action lawsuit against the company in March 2024. The suit alleges that some of the products — specifically items manufactured under its CeraVe brand — contain toxic ingredients linked to certain fatal forms of cancer.

Read on to learn more about the class action lawsuit against CeraVe, including which products are under fire and what you need to do if you currently have them in your home.

According to the About Lawsuits website, Holly Grossenbacher filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She made her claim Mar. 15, 2024, requesting class-action status for her legal filing so that she would be able to work on behalf of any customers who come forward to claim damages after using the products in question, specifically CeraVe Cream benzoyl peroxide products, or BPO Products.

The plaintiff claims that customers like herself were needlessly exposed to toxic levels of the compound through a variety of CeraVe's BPO Products, which she says can be supported by a Mar. 5, 2024 report from the independent laboratory Valisure.

In the report, Valisure warned customers that the ingredient benzene was discovered at levels more than 100 times higher than allowed by federal regulations. Benzene is found in CeraVe products designed to treat acne and has been previously detected in sunscreen and after-sun products from other brands by the lab.

The report goes on to explain how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has listed benzene as a "Class 1 solvent."

The FDA says that potential risks associated with benzene exposure vary depending on multiple factors, including the type of contact and the duration. In the short term, benzene exposure may alter a person's ability to form new blood cells and long-term exposure can even cause cancers like leukemia.

As such, Valisure has petitioned the FDA to issue a recall on all the products that contain unsafe levels of benzene, a figure that the lab says ranges from five to 12 parts per million (ppm), which is well above the acceptable limits of just 2 ppm set by the FDA.

While the About Lawsuits website notes that companies have opted to voluntarily recall their products over benzene contamination concerns in the past — specifically select products from Neutrogena and Aveeno — there hasn't been a CeraVe recall as of publication, so customers aren't being directed to do anything with their products yet.

For those who are concerned over the news of the CeraVe lawsuit or those who are on the hunt for cruelty-free alternatives — there are plenty on the market that may offer customers some peace of mind.