This article was reviewed by Kian R. Magaña, lawyer from The Magaña Firm.
Threatened with Lawsuits Over Ingredients
In the beginning, the company was using a supplier who provided the product but did not provide a fully transparent ingredient list.
After questioning, the supplier said that one of the surfactants could be considered synthetic due to the processing, even though the chemical was naturally derived.
The founders said that people were threatening them with lawsuits because their marketing claimed it was “all-natural”.
At the end of 2015, they pulled the product. They took 18 months off to reformulate the product and this time they were in charge of the manufacturing themselves and have a direct-to-consumer business model.
(Source)
They now have a fully plant (and mineral) based product with full transparency of ingredients.
If you would like to see my review of Branch Basics you can find that here.
Accessibility Lawsuit
According to Accessibility.com Mary Conner initiated a lawsuit in 2021 against Branch Basics for accessibility of their website. In 2021, new rules came in to make websites more accessible but most small websites did not know about this and were unprepared.
Many law firms took this opportunity to sue small sites for accessibility and won. (I don’t know if they won in this case but it is likely based on what I saw happen in the US at that time).
Accessibility of a site has to do with the ability of site reader software to read the site as well as things like the contrast between words and the background. Some of it gets quite technical.
When a website is accessible it means it is accessible to people with a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive ability.
See my review of Branch Basics here.
Corinne Segura is an InterNACHI-certified Healthy Homes Inspector with certifications in Building Biology, Healthier Materials and Sustainable Buildings, and more. She has 10 years of experience helping others create healthy homes. You can book a consult here.
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