Johnson & Johnson

This company sources palm oil from 19 of the 25 dirty palm oil producers identified in the 2018 Greenpeace report "The Final Countdown". In addition to deforestation, the 25 individual cases in the report include evidence of exploitation and social conflicts, illegal deforestation, development without permits, plantation development in areas zoned for protection and forest fires linked to land clearance.
Source: Greenpeace (2018)

The Talking Trash 2020 report by Changing Markets investigates the corporate playbook of false solutions to the plastic crisis. It found that the industry is actively delaying and derailing ambitious action on plastic pollution in its fight to maintain business as usual for as long as possible. For example, this company is signed up to 3 nice-sounding voluntary initiatives to address plastic waste, while also participating in two industry associations which lobby against legislation that could restrict plastic, or make corporations responsible for managing the waste they create, financially or otherwise.
Source: Changing Markets (2020)

As a result of the effects and inappropriate marketing of its antipsychotic drug Risperdal, this company was fined US$1.2b in 2012 in the Arkansas Federal Court due to claims the company downplayed risks and that over 240,000 cases of Medicaid fraud and 4,500 deceptive practices had been caused by the manufacturers marketing activity. Also in 2012 the company settled lawsuits with 36 US states and the District of Columbia regarding improper marketing techniques, specifically for the treatment of children. The cases were settled by the payment of US$181m. Other state cases were also settled including US$327m in South Carolina, US$258m in Louisiana and US$158m in Texas. The company continues to face hundreds of lawsuits regarding Risperdal.
Source: Drug Dangers (2012)

In 2013, in one of the largest health care fraud settlements in US history, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from allegations relating to the prescription drugs Risperdal, Invega and Natrecor, including promotion for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and payment of kickbacks to physicians and to the nation's largest long-term care pharmacy provider.
Source: US Dept of Justice (2013)

DePuy Orthopaedics, a division of this company, has 3 hip replacement devices that have had a high failure rate, causing permanent injury to patients and requirements for revision and reconstruction surgery in a number of patients. The company has more than 7000 lawsuits pending in Federal US courts and 2000 lawsuits pending in California state courts. The company has set aside US$2b for settlements. The first lawsuits filed in state courts were settled in August 2012, awarding approximately US$200,000 to each victim.
Source: Drug Dangers (2014)

In Feb 2021 this company announced it had set aside US$3.9 billion to settle lawsuits from users who claim asbestos-laced talc Baby Powder caused their cancers. The company faces over 25,000 such lawsuits. In 2018 the company was ordered to pay a record US$4.7 billion to 20 women in the US, which was later cut to US$2.1 billion.
Source: news article (2021)

This company appears on PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, USA) 'Companies That Do Test On Animals' list, signifying that they manufacture products that are tested on animals at some stage of development.
Source: PETA (2022)

The Green Supply Chain Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI) evaluates consumer-facing companies that have a sizeable supply chain in China. The evaluation uses government supervision data and public information to assess the environmental management of their supply chains in China. This company received a score of 12.64/100 (retrieved 24 Nov 2023).
Source: IPE (2023)

As You Sow's 2022 report, 'Road to Zero Emissions', assessed the progress of 55 of the largest U.S. corporations in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with the Paris Agreement's objective of limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which requires achieving "net zero" emissions by 2050. Companies are graded on: climate related disclosures; GHG reduction targets, and GHG reductions. This company received an Overall Net Zero grade of D+.
Source: As You Sow (2022)

A 2022 BBC News, Mongabay and the Gecko Project released a joint investigation that looked into a scheme that was intended to help lift millions of Indonesians out of poverty and cut them in on the spoils of the global palm oil boom, but has instead been plagued by allegations of exploitation and illegality. They identified 13 companies, including this one, that have sourced palm oil from producers alleged to have withheld plasma (a portion of large-scale plantations to be shared with local communities), or the profits from plasma, from Indonesian communities over the past eight years. The losses suffered across Indonesia by communities owed plasma could stretch into the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Protests by local tribes over plasma are violently suppressed by Indonesian authorities.
Source: Mongabay (2022)

In 2010, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho-McNeil pleaded guilty to illegally promoting Topamax and agreed to pay a $6.14 million fine. That year, its affiliate, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, also agreed to pay $75.37 million to resolve similar allegations under the federal False Claims Act. Topamax has been linked to birth defects. In 2013 juries awarded $4 million to one family and $11 million to another over birth defects. More court cases and pending.
Source: Drug Watch (2013)

In 2019 this company was ordered by a US judge to pay US$572 million for its part in the opioid addiction crisis in Oklahoma, USA. Judge Thad Balkman said that J&J has became a "public nuisance" in promoting the addictive prescription painkillers to consumers in the state.
Source: news article (2019)

In 2021 this company agreed to pay up to US$230 million to settle a lawsuit from New York state over its sale and marketing of opioid painkillers, as state and local governments move to extract money from the pharmaceutical companies that developed the drugs to help combat an epidemic of addiction to them.
Source: news article (2021)

A 2018 report by Oxfam shows that four pharmaceutical corporations, including this one, systematically hide their profits in overseas tax havens. This activity could deprive developing countries of more than $100 million every year. These corporations deploy massive influencing operations to rig the rules in their favor and give their damaging behavior a veneer of legitimacy. Tax dodging, high prices, and influence peddling by drug companies exacerbate the yawning gap between rich and poor, between men and women, and between advanced economies and developing ones.
Source: Oxfam (2018)

In 2019 several pharmaceutical companies finally settled a 2005 lawsuit which claimed the companies fudged wholesale drug prices to increase Medicaid reimbursements. In all, the state of Illinois received a combined $648 million over the course of that litigation. This company paid US$49.5 million in the 2019 settlement.
Source: news article (2019)