A $100 million class action has been filed against pharmacy operator Eckerd Corporation on behalf of persons who allege that, even though they paid full price for their prescriptions, they did not receive the full amount of drugs that were prescribed. The action cites violations of Florida's consumer protection laws, and seeks compensatory damages to compensate Eckerd customers.

The action alleges that named plaintiff Shirley Minsky was charged for a 3-milliliter supply of Xalatan prescription eyedrops, but received a bottle that contained only 2.5 milliliters. By shorting customers this way, also known as "rounding up," and selling the extra amount to later customers, Eckerd allegedly increased its profits illicitly. Eckerd has announced that it has now changed its system to better account for its inventories. There are two supposed reasons for the rounding-up process: the first involved a process used when a particular pharmacy had a low inventory of a particular product. Now, instead of shorting customers and expecting them to come back later to pick up the rest of their prescription, Eckerd purportedly gives customers a three-day dosage of medicines that are low in inventory and bills clients
when the prescription has been delivered in full.

The other reason cited grows out of the advent of computer technology in the 1970s. At that time, pharmacies all over the United States supposedly made the choice to round up all prescriptions that had volumes that included decimal points, in an attempt to save much-needed computer memory. Most companies that used those methods abandoned them in the 1980s and 1990s, when computer system memory grew expansively.

Penlac topical solution is another drug that was allegedly rounded up on a regular basis by Eckard. Penlac comes in a 3.3-milliliter quantity, but the company allegedly rounded the quantity to 4 milliliters. The lawsuit contends Eckerd internal documents show 1,800 pharmaceutical products were subject to rounding-up.

The lawsuit apparently covers prescriptions that were purchased between February 1, 1998, and February 1, 2002.