00:01This is really a dramatic escalation in this ongoing SPF 50 sunscreen scandal that we've
00:08been covering for the past year, where a number of brands had to pull their product from the
00:13shelves when it was revealed that the SPF rating was far below what was advertised on
00:19the bottle.
00:20Now, one of the most high profile brands is one called Ultraviolet, and they're suing
00:26the maker of the base formula for these sunscreens, a company called Wildchild Laboratories, for
00:34misleading intercepted conduct, for misrepresenting the effectiveness of that base formula that
00:41was shared across these brands that have now been pulled from the shelves.
00:44Now the complicating factor here is that Wildchild Laboratories, while initially defending this
00:49claim, has gone into voluntary liquidation about last month.
00:54And so it's really going to complicate things as this court case and another court case
00:59like it start to begin proceedings in the federal court.
01:02Now, Wildchild, when it went into liquidation, a month before it went into liquidation, another
01:08company set up by a director and the CEO, as well as some investors in the original Wildchild
01:13company, set up a new company called Heliora Laboratories, which is now operating out of
01:20the same factory as Wildchild. It's taken on the employees of Wildchild, some of its customers
01:27and some of its agreed liabilities. Now, Ultraviolet has said to us that they understand the liquidator
01:33is looking at this transaction as part of its investigation into this liquidation. But Heliora's
01:40management who have come over from Wildchild, they say they reject any suggestion that this
01:46new company was set up to avoid any liability of Wildchild Laboratories. Before it did go
01:52into liquidation, it filed a defence in the federal court to this misleading and deceptive
01:58claim. They say that the brands themselves, including Ultraviolet, were responsible for
02:04the effectiveness of their products. But now that the company is in liquidation, it's going
02:09to be interesting to see exactly how these court cases play out.
