Did you know that “Freedom of Speech” does not apply when promoting nutritional supplements?
If you or anyone you know is affiliated with a nutritional supplements company and are accused of making false claims about your company’s products health benefits, the 1st Amendment to the Constitution will not protect you in a court of law.
You read that correctly. But before you get all riled up, listen to why this is actually a good thing. 
The FTC, which stands for the Federal Trade Commission, was established to protect consumers against fraudulent business practices. No one wants to be taken advantage of, and I think we can all think of one scam or another that has come our way during our lives. (Anyone remember the shark cartilage fiasco a few years back in which it was proclaimed that ingesting shark cartilage would cure people of everything from hangnails to cancer? A lot of people fell for that one and lost their hard-earned money to a bunch of crooks.)
Because more and more scientific evidence is emerging everyday that demonstrates the efficacy of “natural products,” there are more supplements available on the market today than at any other time in our history.
And you can bet there are plenty of unethical folks ready to pounce on unsuspecting consumers with their latest “miracle cure.”
The good news is, there are plenty of fantastic nutritional supplement companies out there doing things right. What reps have to make sure to do is clear: make sure your product testimonies are free of health claims that could raise FTC red flags and get you, or your company, in trouble. And if you are advertising in any way, you better make doubly-sure you are not making claims of ANY kind.
Here are a couple of examples:
Red Flag Testimonial = “After one week of using Company X’s products, I was able to get off three drugs, cancel my surgery, and ditch my doctor for good.”
Safe Testimonial = “After using Company X’s products, I noticed I was feeling more energy and less discomfort from everyday aches. I noticed I was playing with my grandkids instead of watching them play.”
The difference is obvious.
In the first, specific health claims were made as a result of taking specific products. In the second, general statements of better health were expressed. The FTC does not like the former but accepts the latter.
As a community of Independent Business Owners, it is important that we help each other become better at what we do so we protect the livelihoods we love so much. The government will always be a part of our lives as long as we choose to live in a democracy. My philosophy is to know the rules so you cover your butt every time and avoid raising any of those pesky FTC red flags.
For more specific information about the FTC and nutritional supplement claims, refer to this pdf by clicking here…
This is a great article Mary Lou. The rulings help weed out the companies that are not compliant with their claims. Too many times people are sucked into believing a supplement is the cure-all. Consumers also need to take responsibility for becoming informed about the supplements they are taking.
Thanks for sharing this,
Val
I appreciate you giving an example here. It makes sense. You don’t want to hyper-inflate any claims. Thanks for the info Mary Lou
Hi Mary Lou
This is a great post and very important especially to those of us in this field. I run up against this everyday and know the false claims that are “out there”. Thank you for bringing this up:)
Glyna
Exactly, Nick. Hyper-inflation does no one any good. Glad it was useful!
I’ve got mixed feelings on this subject Mary Lou. I certainly understand that there a unethical purveyors of health products in our midst. I also understand that there needs to be some standard of ethics against which to balance the multitude of health claims made by industry players. I appreciate your fair warning to distributors, representatives and others in the field in order to remain, or at least appear to remain unbiased in their reports, claims and advertisements.
On the other hand, I also understand that the FTC is a strong arm of a big brother that is snuggled tightly into bed with one of the strongest labor unions (oh, excuse me, I mean professional associations) in the country, indeed, the world. I allude to the AMA which poses as an impartial consumer protection agency on behalf of the patient-user-consumer. In fact, it does NOT represent patients and pharmaceutical or health consumer end-users, it DOES represent the body of affiliated health providers and the medical school and pharmaceutical colleges which train and certify professionals in the field. And the AMA, in my opinion (supported by investigative evidence too vast to divulge here), is not prone to readily entertaining competing and alternative forms of therapy and treatment.
The FTC is a government agency. I do not trust that it always has the public’s best interest in its sights. And I am not convinced, as often inferred, that startling anecdotal claims are inherently suspect by virtue of the fact that they issue from patients rather than physicians, the FDA or bureaucratic research panels.
So yes, be careful not to get red-flagged by big brother FTC… but they do not own the last word on the efficacy of any health care product or protocol available to we the patients. Anyway, that’s my opinion, and I truly appreciate you raising the issue, Mary Lou.
David, Yes, yes, and more yes. I totally get what you are saying here, and you are absolutely right about the bedfellows that exist in Washington. The intention of my post was to protect people from getting into trouble, albeit inadvertently. The challenge any of us who have chosen to work with a nutritional company is we do not have the same “rights” as Big Pharma…Did you know the word “pain” can only be used by medical professionals and Big Pharma? So even if a natural product gets rid of someone’s pain, they are not allowed to say that. Unbelievable. Can anyone say, “Censorship?”
So…lots of good food for thought here. Thanks for writing so candidly. I so appreciate your comments!
Glyna, Indeed. So many “false claims” get unsuspecting people into hot water, and can have a ripple effect on everyone who is doing things right. Better to be safe than sorry!
Yea Mary, I still have a cabinet full of “Snake Oil” I purchase before the FTC was born. We need to beware of Charlatans standing behind the Curtain.
This is an important issue for distributors in the nutrition field ~ and gets a lot of companies in trouble/ shut down so thank you for your insights on how to be in alignment with FTC regulations.
Interestingly, IMO, we are now in an administration that is moving away from deregulation, so hopefully we’ll see tighter reigns on quality supplements (ie. solid science) in the not too distant future.
Thanks Mary Lou, valuable information!