Calls for Reckitt Benckiser boycott in South Korea
South Korean supermarket chain Lotte Mart has stopped stocking Reckitt Benckiser products amid a growing public backlash against the British consumer goods maker blamed for selling fatal disinfectants that caused nearly 100 deaths five years ago.
The move comes as South Korean prosecutors investigate Reckitt Benckiser and three other domestic makers of humidifier sterilisers linked to the illness or deaths of more than 500 people who inhaled allegedly poisonous chemicals.
Reckitt Benckiser withdrew the disinfectant made by its Korean Oxy unit in 2011 after a government probe suggested a link between lung damage and humidifier disinfectants. The environment ministry said none of the tainted products were sold outside South Korea.
Prosecutors last month summoned the former head of Reckitt Benckiser’s Korean unit and two other senior executives to find out whether they approved the sale of the disinfectants, knowing their harmful effects.
On Wednesday, Lotte cleared most of Reckitt Benckiser’s products from its store shelves. “Not many consumers are buying the company’s products these days and we have to respond to their calls,” the company said.
Reckitt Benckiser sells more than 120 household items and five medical products in South Korea.
Atar Safdar, the head of its Korean unit, apologised on Monday in a televised news conference and offered a multimillion-dollar compensation plan for victims.
But the company has come under fire for its initial denials of any responsibility. The victims’ families rejected Mr Safdar’s apology as too late and consumer groups have called for a boycott of Reckitt Benckiser products.
Civic groups representing the victims have filed a complaint with prosecutors against the UK company’s eight board members including Rakesh Kapoor, the British company’s chief executive, for failing to conduct proper safety tests before launching the product in 2001.
Lotte Mart itself apologised last month to affected users of its own brand Wiselect, which it sold November 2006 and September 2011, and offered compensation for victims.
The health risks from the disinfectants came to light after four pregnant women died of lung problems for unknown reasons in 2011. South Korean authorities later that year blamed the chemicals PHMG and PGH used in humidifier disinfectants and suspended sales of the products. Most victims were children and pregnant women.
According to government data, 530 affected people applied for compensation as of April 2015. The government said it would compensate 221 confirmed victims, including the families of 95 people who died, and denied compensation for 309 people.
The government said it had paid Won3.75bn ($3.2m) to the victims and their families as of April this year and plans to get refunds from the disinfectant makers through an ongoing lawsuit.
Reckitt Benckiser was fined $1.3m by an Australian court last month for misleading consumers about the effectiveness of its popular painkiller Nurofen. The court ruled that products marketed as targeting specific ailments such as migraines and back pain were actually identical.