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A federal judge in New Jersey has significantly narrowed a proposed multistate class action alleging that acne creams sold under the Clean & Clear and Neutrogena brands contained cancer-causing benzene without proper warnings.

In a 37-page decision issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed large portions of the plaintiffs’ state and common law claims against Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. and Kenvue Inc., finding that the complaint failed to adequately connect alleged violations of federal manufacturing standards to the cited state laws.

However, the court allowed the consumers’ claims for monetary damages to proceed, concluding that they plausibly alleged they purchased defective products.

Allegations Over Benzene Contamination

The consolidated lawsuit includes nearly two dozen named plaintiffs from states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. The majority are California residents.

The plaintiffs allege that acne treatments containing benzoyl peroxide — marketed under J&J’s Clean & Clear label and Kenvue’s Neutrogena brand — were defective because they either contained benzene at the time of sale or degraded over time to form benzene, a known carcinogen.

According to the complaint, testing conducted by independent laboratory Valisure LLC detected benzene levels exceeding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recommended limit of 2 parts per million, in some instances reaching 20 times that threshold.

The lawsuit contends that the issue is not the result of isolated contamination, but rather stems from the inherent instability of benzoyl peroxide, which can break down chemically and generate benzene.

Judge Castner echoed that framing in rejecting the companies’ argument that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The companies had asserted that Valisure’s testing at most demonstrated contamination in specific batches. But the court found the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged a product-wide design flaw, describing the case as one involving a problem “inherent to each product” containing benzoyl peroxide.

State Law Claims Fall Short

While the plaintiffs relied on consumer protection and product liability statutes from 11 states, Judge Castner ruled that their pleadings did not adequately bridge the gap between those laws and alleged violations of federal current good manufacturing practices, known as cGMPs.