FTC Sues Firms for False Weight-Loss Claims

As part of a renewed effort to curb false weight-loss claims, the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday it has sued six companies that sold products ranging from cellulite cream to diet teas and patches.

“These ads offer false hope and encourage consumers to postpone making more difficult changes in diet and exercise that can make a real difference,” FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras said in a news conference. “They’re junk.”The suits were filed with several U.S. district courts.The advertisers could face civil penalties, including restitution of ill-gotten financial gains.The six privately held companies named as defendants in the FTC suits are: AVS Marketing Inc., CHK Trading Co. Inc., Femina Inc., Natural Products, New England Diet Center and Selfworx.com LLC.FTC officials also sent letters to a number of media companies that ran the ads cited in the six lawsuits. The ads ran in Hearst Corp.’s Cosmopolitan magazine, Gannett Co. Inc.’s USA Weekend, and Belo Corp.’s Dallas Morning News, among others.Last December, the FTC asked media outlets to stop running misleading weight-loss ads, which Majoras said can help “lend an air of credibility” to the products. Since then, print and broadcast advertisements for such products have dropped by half, according to the agency’s preliminary count, she said.There are no plans to file complaints against any media companies, Majoras said.”We’re having success … and we want to continue on this track,” she added.Agency officials also launched a Web site to counter false claims on the Internet, which is flooded with diet-related advertisements, Web sites and spam.The agency-run site — online at www.wemarket4u.net/fatfoe — looks like any other site offering weight-loss help with no sweat or starvation.But when consumers click on it, they receive this message from the FTC:”Wouldn’t it be nice if you could eat all you want of your favorite foods and still lose weight?”Too bad it’s not true.” (Source: Reuters, Nov 2004)