Court Finds for FTC in Supreme Greens Case

BOSTONThe U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, upheld a decision in favor of FTC which ordered the marketers of the Supreme Greens and Coral Calcium dietary supplements to pay $48.2 million for marketing the products with deceptive health claims. Donald W. Barrett, Robert Maihos, Direct Marketing Concepts Inc. and ITV Direct Inc. appealed a lower court decision issued in 2009 in favor of FTC, which charged the defendants with deceptive advertising.

Despite the volume of the Defendants arguments, we find no more substance in them than the district court found in their infomercials," wrote Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson in the October 2010 decision. The appellate court rejected all the marketers arguments for overturning the ruling and affirmed the lower courts conclusion that evidence to support their health claims for the supplements was woefully inadequate." The appellate court concluded that the district courts monetary remedy appropriately ordered the Defendants to cure their customers in a way that their bogus supplements could not."

In July 2008, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found Barrett and his associates deceptively claimed Supreme Greens and Coral Calcium could treat, cure or prevent cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and a variety of other diseases. The district court issued its final order in August 2009, requiring the defendants to pay $48.2 million. The district court also barred them from making deceptive claims about Supreme Greens and Coral Calcium; misrepresenting that scientific research validated their claims; making any health, performance or efficacy claims about any food, drug, dietary supplement, cosmetic or device unless such claims are true, non-misleading and substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence; failing to disclose that promotional programming is, in fact, a paid advertisement; and billing consumers or charging their credit or debit cards on an ongoing basis without their consent.