United States - FTC Cracks Down on Deceptive Advertising for Fad Weight Loss Products: Obtains $26.5 Million from Sensa

Just in time for the post-New Year diet season, the FTC announced "Operation Failed Resolution", a law-enforcement initiative to stop national marketers that used deceptive advertising claims to peddle fad weight-loss products, from food additives and skin cream to dietary supplements.

At the center of the FTC's initiative is the FTC's case against Sensa, a company that allegedly deceived consumers with unfounded weight loss claims and misleading endorsements. Sensa, which claimed that consumers could simply "sprinkle, eat and lose weight" will pay $26,5 million to settle FTC's charges. The FTC will make these funds available for refunds to consumers who bought Sensa. Under the order, Sensa and related defendants are barred from further misrepresentations and from making claims about their products unless they possess appropriate substantiation. They also must disclose any material connections with the endorsers of a product or program, as well as with anyone conducting or participating in a study of the product or program. An individual defendant who conducted two of the studies cited in Sensa ads and provided endorsements is also barred from providing expert endorsements unless he relies on competent and reliable scientific evidence and his own expertise.

The agency also announced chargers against the marketers of two other products that made unfounded promises. The forst, L'Occitane, claimed that its skin cream would slim users' bodies but had no science to back up that claim. The second, HCG Diet Direct, marketed an unproven human hormone that has been touted by hucksters for more than half a century as a weight-loss treatment. The FTC also announced a partial settlement in a fourth case, LeanSpa, LLC, an operation that allegedly deceptively promoted acai berry and "colon cleanse" weight-loss supplements through fake news websites. L'Occitane, Inc. will pay $450,000 in consumers redress and the LeanSpa settling defendants will surrender assets totaling an estimated $7,3 million. Information about consumer redress in these cases will be posted here.