Tag: Consumer Protection

The FTC’s October 2018 complaint against Redwood Scientific charged the defendants with a scheme that used illegal robocalls to deceptively market dissolvable oral film strips as effective smoking cessation, weight-loss, and sexual-performance aids. Announced in June 2019 as part of a crackdown on illegal robocalls against operations around the country responsible for more than one billion calls, an initial  settlement resolved the FTC’s charges against one defendant in the Redwood Scientific case, Danielle Cadiz. The order permanently banned Cadiz from all robocall activities, including ringless voicemails, and imposes a judgment of $18.2 million against Cadiz. In March 2022, the FTC announced the final court orders against all remaining defendants.

The FTC obtained an order halting a credit repair scheme that allegedly bilked consumers out of millions of dollars by falsely claiming they will remove negative information from credit reports, while also filing fake identity theft reports to explain negative items on customers’ credit reports.

The FTC and the State of Maine’s complaint against Health Research Laboratories and its principal, announced in November 2017, alleged that the defendants deceptively marketed two of their health products, BioTherapex and NeuroPlus. In November 2018, the FTC mailed 16,596 checks totaling more than $750,000 to consumers who bought the two deceptively marketed supplements. The FTC and State of Maine subsequently filed a motion seeking a contempt order against the defendants in December 2019, for allegedly violating the final Commission order by continued to market and sell dietary supplements with claims that were not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence. In November 2020, the FTC staff discontinued its contempt action and filed an administrative complaint against the defendants. The FTC announced a proposed order settling the complaint in March 2020.