Tag: Health Care

In January 2023, the FTC issued an order requiring Ohio-based LCA-Vision, doing business as LasikPlus and Joffe MediCenter, to pay $1.25 million for using deceptive bait-and-switch advertising to trick consumers into believing they could have their vision corrected for less than $300. The order also bans the defendants from making the misrepresentations detailed in the complaint. The Commission approved the final consent order in March 2023.

The Federal Trade Commission has taken enforcement action for the first time under its Health Breach Notification Rule against the telehealth and prescription drug discount provider GoodRx Holdings Inc., for failing to notify consumers and others of its unauthorized disclosures of consumers’ personal health information to Facebook, Google, and other companies.

In February 2020, the FTC filed a complaint in federal district court against ZyCal Bioceuticals, a company that manufactured and sold the ingredient Cyplexinol to trade customers for use in making pain relief products for joint ailments, such as arthritis. Zycal also marketed a line of Cyplexinol-based pain relief products to chiropractors and directly to consumers under the brand name Ostinol. The same complaint includes allegations against another company, Excellent Marketing Results, Inc. (EMR), which was one of ZyCal's trade customers. EMR marketed a Cyplexinol-based formulation called StimTein via infomercials and online, and claimed it was clinically proven to stimulate cells to grow bone tissue and cartilage. EMR and its president agreed to a settlement that resolves charges against them in the FTC’s complaint, and prohibits them from making such health-related product claims unless they are supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence. In September 2020, the FTC announced it was returning more than $110,000 to consumers who bought EMR’s StimTein.   In February 2023, the FTC announced a proposed order barring the ZyCal defendants from the deceptive conduct alleged in the complaint.