Nearly 700 companies are receiving a warning from the Federal Trade Commission about the civil penalties they face for advertisements containing claims about products that cannot be backed up with reliable evidence.
Pharmaceutical, retail, and health and wellness companies that market over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements, homeopathic products and health foods make up a large portion of the 670 companies receiving a notice of penalties from the FTC. With the notice issued, the agency can seek civil penalties — up to $50,120 per violation — against companies that knowingly engage in marketing conduct that has been found unlawful in previous FTC administrative orders.
Among the recipients of the notice of penalties are AbbVie, Amazon, AstraZeneca, Costco, CVS Pharmacy, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Rite Aid, Walgreens Boot Alliance and Walmart. The full recipient list can be found here. The agency notes that recipients' inclusion on the list "does not in any way suggest that it has engaged in deceptive or unfair conduct."
In its notice, the FTC outlines specific unlawful marketing practices, such as the lack of reliable evidence for product and its health and safety claims, and misrepresenting that a product claim has been scientifically or clinically proven. A sample of the letter distributed to the companies can be found here.
"The requirement for advertisers to have adequate support for their advertising claims at the time they're made is a bedrock principle of FTC law," Sam Levine, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the agency news release. "The prospect of steep civil penalties will help ensure that advertisers don't play fast and loose with the truth."