SAN JOSE — The popular sunscreen maker Sun Bum will pay $300,000 in civil penalties and has dropped “reef friendly” descriptions from its products to settle a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County alleging the label misled consumers into believing its chemical sunscreens were not harmful to ocean life, according to the district attorney’s office.
The office says the settlement is the first in the country involving the “reef friendly” labeling by a major sunscreen brand. Santa Clara County prosecutors are also suing the maker of Banana Boat and Hawaiian Tropic sunscreens over similar allegations.
In addition to ceasing the disputed claims, Sun Bum will pay $25,000 to fund a California reef restoration headed by the nonprofit Fish Reef Project, according to a Monday news release from the DA’s office.
“Consumers are looking for environmentally friendly products,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “We are looking out for consumers and the environment by enforcing the law and correcting misleading claims.”
Sun Bum did not respond to a request for comment.
After the state of Hawaii banned the use of chemical sunscreen ingredients oxybenzone and octinoxate in 2018 — with the law going into effect in 2021 — some sunscreen makers used the change as an opportunity to push their products as “reef friendly” or “reef safe.” But the sunscreens still contained other reef-damaging chemicals like avobenzone and octocrylene.
According to the Sun Bum settlement, which was approved last week by Superior Court Judge Shella Deen, the company is prohibited from advertising any of its chemical sunscreens as “reef friendly,” “reef compliant,” or using imagery of a coral reef.
Prosecutors said they began investigating sunscreen reef claims in 2023, by which point the manufacturers had been pushing the false safety marketing for several years. Studies have found that chemical sunscreens contain ingredients that are toxic to reefs, and that the Republic of Palau, the island of Bonaire, the city of Key West, Fla., and the U.S. Virgin Islands passed similar bans to the one in the Hawaii.
It’s important to note that the DA’s litigation targets chemical sunscreens; mineral sunscreens are considered to be a more environmentally friendly alternative.