The Commerce Commission says Reckitt Benckiser (New Zealand) Ltd is facing 10 charges alleging it misled the public about the nature, characteristics and suitability of its Nurofen specific pain range products.

All charges are under the Fair Trading Act 1986. Eight of them allege that the packaging and promotion of four different types of pain specific products were misleading.

The products were Nurofen Migraine Pain, Nurofen Tension Headache, Nurofen Period Pain, and Nurofen Back Pain.

The other two charges allege that the advertisement of these products on Reckitt Benckiser's website was likely to mislead or deceive consumers.

The Commission says it alleges that both the website and the packaging of these products gave the overall impression that the products were targeted to provide relief for a specific kind of pain. 

The Commission alleges this was misleading because the pain specific products contained the same ingredients and were equally effective in treating any of the types of pain specified.

Reckitt Benckiser has co-operated with the Commission's investigation and noted it intends to plead guilty to the charges.

The Commission says Reckitt Benckiser entered into Court Enforceable Undertakings with the Commission in December 2015 where it agreed to re-label the pain specific products. Products with the old packaging were removed from sale by March 2016. The website pages were taken down in July 2015.