Hi-Health Settles FTC Charges

PHOENIX--Hi-Health Supermart Corp. and its owner Simon Chaplin settled charges by Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which alleged the company made unsubstantiated claims and statements in marketing its eye health product on the nationally syndicated Paul Harvey radio show in 2003. Under terms of the settlement agreement, Chaplin and his company must pay a fine of $450,000 to FTC for use in customer redress, as well as refrain from using unsubstantiated statements in the marketing of Ocular Nutrition or any related product.

In a series of testimonials and statements read over the radio, the company claimed its Ocular product could restore vision already lost due to age-related macular degeneration and could also eliminate floaters, reporting such claims as confirmed by multiple research studies in respected medical journals. FTC charged the claims were unsubstantiated, and the reported studies did not exist.