Louisiana files lawsuits alleging pharmaceutical giant CVS deceived
customers in text messages
[June 25, 2025]
By JACK BROOK
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana filed several lawsuits accusing
pharmaceutical giant CVS of abusing customer information and using its
dominant market position to drive up drug costs and unfairly undermine
independent pharmacies, the state’s attorney general said Tuesday.
Attorney General Liz Murrill began investigating CVS after the company
sent out mass text messages to thousands of residents on June 11 to
lobby against legislation that took aim at its business structure. The
texts warned that medication costs could go up and all CVS pharmacies in
the state would close.
The lawsuits, which were filed Monday in central Louisiana’s St. Landry
Parish, seek “injunctive relief, civil penalties and restitution,"
Murrill said.
CVS “abused customers’ sensitive information to push a political
message,” Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said Tuesday at a press
conference.
He noted CVS had lobbied his wife over text via the same messaging chain
normally used to notify her about picking up a prescription drug or
other healthcare-related matters.
One lawsuit argues that the text message lobbying constituted “unfair or
deceptive acts" in violation of state trade law. Two Louisiana-based law
firms have filed a separate class action lawsuit against CVS over the
text messages.
CVS has denied any wrongdoing.
“Our communication with CVS customers, patients and members of the
community was consistent with the law,” CVS said in an emailed
statement. “We believe it was important for people to know about a
potential disruption to where they get their medicine.”
Two other lawsuits allege that CVS artificially inflates prices for
consumers and independent pharmacies.
CVS serves as a pharmacy benefit manager — essentially an intermediary
that buys medication from manufacturers and distributes drugs to
pharmacies.
CVS and the mail-order pharmacy Express Scripts dominate the market by
processing about eight out of every 10 prescription drug claims,
according to the Federal Trade Commission, which warned in a 2024 report
that this allows for “inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street
pharmacies."
Because CVS also owns a vast network of retail pharmacies — including
119 in Louisiana — it sets the terms for how prescription drugs are sold
to customers there.
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Signage hangs above a CVS pharmacy location in Philadelphia, June 6,
2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
 The proposed law that sparked the
text messages from CVS had sought to ban pharmacy benefit managers
like CVS from owning drug stores. The law failed to pass, but Landry
has stated he will seek to revive it.
In the state's litigation, Murrill alleges that CVS business
structure and practices allow the company to “manipulate prices,
restrict competition and channel profits internally."
One lawsuit accuses CVS of “systematically under-reimbursing
independent Louisiana pharmacies to the point of economic hardship,
while routing patients to CVS-owned facilities.” The lawsuit alleges
that CVS imposes “unethical, unscrupulous, and exorbitantly high
fees on independent pharmacies.”
CVS said that it should not have to pay higher rates for “less
efficient pharmacies” and that this would lead to “higher costs for
consumers.”
“Importantly, CVS Pharmacy remains the lowest cost pharmacy and a
critical partner in lowering prescription drug costs for
Louisianans,” the company said.
Another lawsuit argues that CVS uses its market control to exclude
lower-cost drugs for "high-rebate, high-price brand drugs” and other
practices that “distort the drug market” and “drive up costs for the
state's public health programs and its citizens.”
CVS said that its business structure allows for “better access,
affordability, and advocacy for those we serve.” The company said
that removing CVS pharmacies from Louisiana would increase costs to
the state by more than $4.6 million.
Landry said he would seek new legislation targeting CVS if existing
laws were insufficient to win in court.
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