ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 13, 1996 TAG: 9612130080
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
Virginia consumers expecting to share in a settlement involving price fixing of infant formulas will be disappointed, the state consumer office said Thursday.
Parents whose children were born in hospitals between 1982 and 1992 and were on Similac or Enfamil formula qualify for $1,400 awards as part of a class action lawsuit against the formula manufacturer, according to fliers distributed in several parts of the state.
However, Virginia is not one of the states participating in the suit, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the state attorney general's office.
The state office has received more than 200 calls about the fliers, mostly from the Richmond and Tidewater areas, said spokeswoman Marion Horsley. Callers have been advised not to send any information.
The fliers asked parents to send their children's names, birth dates and Social Security numbers, plus copies of their birth certificates, to an address in Minnesota by Dec.6.
According to the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota, a Minneapolis law firm is collecting information for a class action suit by 17 states against the formula maker.
What's odd about the fliers, Horsley said, is that the Minnesota address listed is actually the correct one for filing legitimate claims.
"It doesn't look like it's a scam as such, in the sense that they aren't asking for money," Horsley said. But the fact that the fliers ask parents to submit Social Security numbers and birth certificates is suspicious, she said.
Additionally, while the fliers promise $1,400 settlements, the Minnesota BBB said no dollar figure has been estimated yet, and no checks will be disbursed until at least 1997.
A spokeswoman from the Minnesota BBB said neither the fliers nor an Internet posting about the settlement came from official sources.
The 17 states participating in the suit are Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Horsley said she has heard similar fliers have been distributed in numerous other states - including California, Delaware, Oklahoma and South Carolina - that are not part of the suit.
For more information about the class action suit, call (800) 585-1151.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB