Advertisements for HCG Platinum claim that the product can help users lose a pound a day and have helped the manufacturer to multiple millions of dollars in sales. But the FTC wants to see the manufacturer in court.
Kevin Wright is the manufacturer, and has to respond to the FTC’s charges in a federal court.
Explaining its case, FTC said, “Marketing through retail outlets such as GNC, Rite Aid, and Walgreens, and through their own websites, Wright and his companies, HCG Platinum and Right Way Nutrition, LLC, promise consumers that HCG Platinum liquid drops will cause rapid and substantial weight loss, and they claim consumers will likely lose as much weight as the endorsers in their advertisements. The defendants, who also make claims on Facebook, on product packaging, and in Internet pop-up ads and magazines, direct consumers to place the HCG concoctions under their tongues before meals and stick to a very low calorie diet of 500 to 800 calories per day. They typically charge between $60 and $149 for a thirty-day supply of one of their three HCG Platinum formulations.”
The FTC says the weight loss claims are not substantiated by “…competent and reliable scientific evidence.”
FTC also said the products have brought in $13M, and stated that it wants all ill-gotten gains received on the basis of deceptive advertising to be surrendered.
