Eckerd Fights Lawsuit in FL

Eckerd has preliminarily reviewed the class action lawsuit that was filed against it in Broward County, FL. The suit claims that Eckerd engaged in a practice of "rounding up" certain prescription quantities and, as a result, allegedly overcharged its customers. Wayne Harris, Eckerd's chairman and ceo, stated "Preserving the integrity of our relationship with our customers is our paramount concern. I am confident that we have charged our customers the correct price for their prescriptions."

Eckerd stated that certain prescriptions, such as some liquids and ointments, come from the manufacturer in prepackaged fractional quantities and are sold to customers at a price set for the prepackaged fractional quantity. Due to systems limitations, the quantity, but not the price, needed to be "rounded up" in order to correctly process the prescription, but customers were only charged for the prepackaged fractional quantity noted on the manufacturer's container. Eckerd has recently upgraded its pharmacy processing system to permit the actual fractional quantity of the prescription dispensed to be entered and shown on the prescription label. This upgrade has been completed in substantially all of Eckerd's stores and is expected to be completely installed by the end of the month.