Arizona Sues L’Oréal, Says It Hid Cancer Risks in Hair Relaxers
Arizona has sued L’Oréal, accusing the cosmetics giant of selling chemical hair relaxers while concealing evidence linking the products to increased risks of uterine and ovarian cancer.
Attorney General Kris Mayes filed the consumer fraud lawsuit Sept. 10 in state court, making Arizona the first state to sue over alleged cancer risks tied to hair relaxers. L’Oréal and other manufacturers are already facing more than 12,000 related lawsuits from women and their families in federal court.
Arizona says products sold under brands including Dark & Lovely and Optimum were marketed primarily to Black women, with some products also marketed to children, without adequate warnings about potential health risks.
The state alleges L’Oréal knew or should have known about concerns surrounding the products but continued promoting them as healthy, nourishing, strengthening, and gentle. According to the complaint, the company failed to disclose research linking chemical relaxers to uterine and ovarian cancer.
Rather than seeking damages for individual cancer diagnoses, Arizona is targeting how the products were marketed and sold. The lawsuit accuses L’Oréal of deceptive and unfair practices under the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and seeks penalties, restitution for consumers and court-ordered changes to product warnings.
Arizona law allows civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each willful violation. The state argues that individual misrepresentations, omissions and product sales may amount to separate violations, which could substantially increase L’Oréal's exposure if the claims are proven.
The lawsuit relies in part on research examining chemical hair straighteners and cancer. A 2022 National Institutes of Health study involving more than 33,000 women found that frequent users of chemical straightening products were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer as women who did not use them.
Other research has reported associations between hair relaxer use and ovarian cancer. Arizona also points to chemicals found in some products, including phthalates and parabens, in arguing that consumers were not given enough information about potential health risks.
The studies identified associations and did not establish that hair relaxers caused cancer in any individual user, an issue that remains central to the broader litigation.
L’Oréal USA has rejected Arizona's allegations, saying it is confident in the safety of its products and considers the claims legally and scientifically unfounded. The company has also argued that research cited in hair relaxer litigation does not establish that its products caused the cancers alleged.
Arizona's lawsuit opens a new front in a fight that has largely played out through individual injury claims. More than 12,000 lawsuits involving L’Oréal, Revlon and other manufacturers have been consolidated before a federal judge in Chicago, where plaintiffs allege chemical straighteners caused cancers and other injuries.
Those federal cases focus on whether the products caused individual harm. Arizona's case gives state prosecutors a separate route to pursue L’Oréal over what consumers were told before buying and using the products, while seeking penalties and changes to how the relaxers can be marketed.
