Diet pill marketers hit with false ad fines

Companies agree to pay Federal Trade Commission $25M iafter products failed to live up to promises of weight loss or weight control.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it fined marketers of such popular over-the-counter diet drugs as Xenadrine EFX and TrimSpa millions of dollars for using false advertising practices.

The government agency, which settled the claims for $25 million, said that the pills that made weight loss and weight control claims were not supported by scientific evidence.

As part of the the settlement, the government said the marketers promised to limit future advertising claims.

"You won't find weight loss in a bottle of pills that claims it has the latest scientific breakthrough or miracle ingredient," FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said in a prepared statement. "Paying for fad science is a good way to lose cash, not pounds."

Besides Xenadrine EFX and TrimSpa, the FTC said it also settled false advertising claims with the marketers of CortiSlim and Bayer AG's (down $0.17 to $54.11, Charts) One-A-Day WeightSmart.


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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.