Managers and the Legal Environment 7th Edition by David Madsen, Constance Bagley

Exercise 13

Ravlona, a cosmetic company, has developed an innovative makeup that holds fast on the skin for thirty-six hours. The makeup uses a new chemical dye recently developed by the in-house research team at Ravlona. The dye is manufactured from commonly used dyes that are converted to different forms with a platinum catalyst. The catalyst must be present in order to retard the natural fading of the dye, but when the makeup is applied, some of the catalyst leaches into the skin. Preliminary research has shown that this leaching may cause long-term damage, but the effects would not be noticeable for ten to twenty years. Assume that there are no federal rules regulating the presence of platinum in cosmetics. If you were the marketing director at Ravlona, would you feel comfortable introducing this product to the market even though problems may emerge ten or twenty years down the line? Is Ravlona obligated to disclose the findings of its study to the FDA?