Synogenes.com

In America recently, there was a ruling by the Federal Trade Commission against a company called CVS Pharmacy Inc. They were cashing in on the recent scares about flu to market a product which they claimed could prevent colds, fight germs, and boost immune systems. Unfortunately, there was no evidence...

Last year, the FTC issued rulings against a number of other companies including Airborne Health Inc, Improvita Health Products Inc, and Rite Aid Corporation. These were promoting health food supplements that could apparently treat colds and the flu... Hmmmm.... Colds and flu are viruses... and these were being treated by... dietary supplements...

Read about it here.

This case is interesting because the FTC is responsible for consumer protection against false claims, and it files a report when it thinks there is a likelihood that the law has been broken. But the report is not itself evidence that the company has broken the law, even though in this case they're paying out $2.8 million in consumer refunds.

Normally consumer legislation is seriously hampered in the case of Woo merchants because the actual evidence is always very thin on the ground. Few detailed studies are done on whether these wacky therapies and products actually do anything. Partly that's because the resources to investigate them cost money and it is better spent elsewhere, but also because Woo practitioners are remarkably evasive when it comes to controlled, double-blind trials. They like stories and anecdotes, rather than clinical trials which tend to expose their empty claims. The sell the placebo effect but they don't want everyone to understand that or sales will fall.

In the case of Woo therapies, the libel law often protects practitioners against direct challenge. And in order to demonstrate fraud, you have to be able to show that someone is knowingly selling a fake treatment or product as if it was the real thing. If they are ignorant of the facts, but believe they are selling something real, that's a valid defence. Ignorance of human biology and science is an excellent defence for individual Woo practitioners.

But in the case of a corporation with the resources to find out and keep informed, it seems there is at least some expectation that they observe the requirements of evidence before making extraordinary claims. If only that was enforced in the case of people selling crystals, ear candles, aromatherapy, homeopathy, Reiki, and all the other baseless therapies and products out there.