Enforcing the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act: The FTC’s settlement with Evoke Wellness and what it means for businesses

The FTC is cracking down on companies attempting to deceive people seeking treatment for addiction. An example of this effort is the FTC’s recently filed settlement to resolve allegations that Evoke Wellness (“Evoke”) and two of its executives used illegal tactics to trick people seeking substance use disorder (“SUD”) treatment services.

According to the FTC’s complaint, Evoke ran a two-phased scheme involving false advertisements and deceptive telemarketing. First, Evoke placed Google search ads that included the phone numbers for Evoke’s treatment facilities and call center. The problem? According to the FTC, the search ads effectively impersonated other treatment clinics people search for online.

The FTC charges that, when people clicked on the phone number in an ad, Evoke’s telemarketers were standing by to carry on the deception — leading callers to believe they had reached the specific facilities they had searched for. Then, the telemarketers would redirect them to Evoke treatment centers instead.

The FTC claims Evoke’s practices violated the FTC Act and the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act of 2018 (OARFPA), which gives the FTC extra tools to address unfair or deceptive acts or practices related to any SUD treatment service or product.

Businesses involved in the marketing or sale of services or treatments to address opioid or other addiction should consider the following:

Check your online profile. Take this opportunity to run a Google search for your business’s name to make sure nobody’s impersonating your business or sending people searching for it to a different site. If someone’s using your business’s name without permission, we want to hear about it. Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

The FTC will use all tools at its disposal to fight deceptive claims for addiction treatment products or services. OARFPA gives the FTC the ability to seek civil penalties, refunds for consumers, and other enhanced remedies from people or businesses that use unfair or deceptive acts or practices to market or sell SUD treatment services or products. The FTC is committed to addressing the opioid crisis and will use all available means to aggressively pursue unscrupulous marketers targeting people seeking treatment.

Tell the truth in your ads. Whatever your product or service, use truthful, non-misleading ads to attract customers. In this case, the FTC claimed Evoke drove traffic to their telemarketers by planting misleading ads designed to draw in customers searching for other businesses. Compete honestly. Misleading ads hurt consumers and competitors, and the FTC will continue to pursue businesses that break the law.