{"id":5531,"date":"2011-11-09T05:54:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T03:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=5531"},"modified":"2015-03-09T12:41:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T16:41:55","slug":"ftc-orders-hoodia-scammers-to-turn-over-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/ftc-orders-hoodia-scammers-to-turn-over-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC Orders Hoodia Scammers to Turn Over Assets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2011\/11\/ftc-hoodia-weight-loss-case-settlement-requires-defendants-turn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The press release sez it all:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;the Federal Trade Commission settled charges brought against three people and two companies for deceptively advertising a supposed weight-loss supplement ingredient. One defendant is banned from making any weight-loss claims related to foods, drugs, or dietary supplements and must turn over a vacation home and other assets to the FTC; another is banned from the dietary supplement business; and all defendants are barred from making any more deceptive claims. The marketers were part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2009\/04\/ftc-charges-marketers-hoodia-weight-loss-supplements-deceptive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scheme<\/a> that supplied manufacturers of weight-loss supplements with a substance they claimed was a derivative of the plant <em>Hoodia gordonii <\/em>(\u201choodia\u201d), which is native to southern Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;In its 2009 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/enforcement\/cases-proceedings\/082-3130\/stella-labs-llc-neutraceuticals-international-llc-et-al-ftc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">complaint<\/a>, the FTC alleged that the defendants made false and deceptive claims about hoodia and its effectiveness as a treatment for obesity, and falsely claimed that their ingredient was hoodia when it was not.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint also alleged that the defendants falsely and deceptively claimed their product would enable consumers to lose weight and suppress appetites; was scientifically proven to suppress appetite, resulting in weight loss; and was clinically proven to reduce caloric intake by 1,000 to 2,000 calories per day.<\/p>\n<p>The defendants also provided deceptive advertising and promotional materials to trade customers, who then had the means to deceive consumers that bought the purported weight-loss products.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nice\u00a0group of folks, eh? Not only did they lie to their trade customers; they helped their trade customers lie to their retail customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The press release sez it all: &#8230;the Federal Trade Commission settled charges brought against three people and two companies for deceptively advertising a supposed weight-loss supplement ingredient. One [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,28,29],"tags":[475,1770],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5531"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10036,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5531\/revisions\/10036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}