Australia’s consumer regulator is taking the owner of the popular Hawaiian Tropic and Banana Boat sunscreens to court over allegations they have misled consumers by claiming their products are “reef-friendly”.
The federal court proceedings, which are being contested by the products’ owner Edgewell Personal Care, come amid intense scrutiny of sunscreens after an investigation by the consumer organisation Choice found that many do not provide the level of skin protection advertised on their bottles.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Tuesday that Edgewell had engaged in greenwashing by claiming the two products were reef-friendly when they contained ingredients that could harm coral and marine life.
“We allege that Edgewell engaged in greenwashing by making claims about the environmental benefits of Hawaiian Tropic and Banana Boat sunscreens that it had no reasonable or scientific basis to make,” said the ACCC’s deputy chair, Catriona Lowe. “We believe this conduct was widespread and risked potentially misleading a large number of consumers.”
The term greenwashing refers to the practice of misleading or overstating a company’s environmental claims, which has attracted increasing scrutiny from regulators.
While the sunscreens do not contain the oxybenzone or octinoxate chemicals that are known to damage reefs, the regulator alleges that they contain other ingredients that risk causing harm.
The sunscreens were sold in Australia with the reef-friendly claims, which in some cases included using an image of coral on the product, at various times over a four-year period to 2024.
An Edgewell spokesperson said the company firmly stood by the products’ claims. “The proceedings will be defended on that basis,” the spokesperson said. “As this is active litigation, Edgewell will not provide further comments at this time.”
Last month Banana Boat was one of several sunscreen brands that Choice found did not offer the level of advertised skin protection, with the product’s SPF50+ lotion testing at 35.
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The SPF, or sun protection factor, of a sunscreen measures how well it protects the skin from sunburn by indicating how much ultraviolet radiation could reach it.
Edgewell was contacted for comment over the Choice findings.
Ultra Violette’s Lean Screen SPF 50+ returned the worst result of any sunscreen tested by Choice, with the product returning an SPF of just four. Ultra Violette has refuted the test results.