North Bay residents will have to start getting their “five a day” the old-fashioned way, as a multi-county lawsuit was settled this week with Balance of Nature dietary supplements to stop the company from making bogus health claims.
Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez announced July 26 her office—along with district attorneys in Marin, Napa and seven other California DA offices— settled a consumer protection action against Evig, LLC, which does business as Balance of Nature. The DA offices filed suit in Napa Superior Court as part of the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device Task Force.
Balance of Nature says its dietary supplements are composed of fruits and vegetables that are freeze-dried, powdered and placed in capsules. The complaint alleged that Balance of Nature made representations regarding the health benefits of its products that were not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence. For example, as part of its marketing Balance of Nature made the following claims, which the district attorneys alleged lacked scientific support:
- The company claimed that one serving of its Fruits product, which weighs approximately 2 grams, contained the “nutritional equivalent of over five servings of fruits per dose.”
- “When you take the recommended three capsule dosage of Balance of Nature Fruit and Veggies, your body receives as much nutrition as it would from eating more than 10 servings of a salad made with 31 different fruits and vegetables.”
- “Can the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables fit into just six capsules? Yes!”
According to Rodriguez’s office, the complaint also alleged that Balance of Nature made claims that its products could prevent, treat, mitigate or cure serious disease conditions, including diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, fibromyalgia and cancer. “The company went so far as to recommend that customers take 12 capsules each of its Fruits and Veggies supplements if they had been ‘diagnosed with life threatening illness,’” county officials said in announcing the settlement. “Balance of Nature also used customer testimonials to make scientifically unsupported claims that the products could treat or cure disease conditions such as lupus, ulcers, gout, congestive heart failure, Hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis.”
Additionally, the complaint alleged that Balance of Nature enrolled customers into an automatically renewing subscription program, and charged them a recurring monthly fee, without clearly disclosing the terms of the program, giving customers an adequate acknowledgement of their enrollment in the program or allowing customers to cancel online—all in violation of California’s Automatic Renewal Law.
As part of the settlement, Balance of Nature agreed to enter into a judgment, which includes a monetary payment of $1.1 million dollars, according to Rodriguez’s office. Under the terms of the judgment, Balance of Nature must pay $250,000 in customer restitution. Any California resident who purchased a Balance of Nature product in the past six years will receive a notice on how to claim a refund, the county announcement said. Balance of Nature will also pay $850,000 in civil penalties and investigative costs. Further, the judgment prohibits Balance of Nature from engaging in any of the unlawful conduct described in the complaint. Balance of Nature did not admit liability.
In announcing the settlement, Rodriguez said she’s proud Sonoma County takes part in the task force’s role as watchdog for consumer protections. “The California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task force does important work throughout the state to protect consumers from false and misleading advertising in the area of dietary supplements and medical devices,” said Rodriguez.
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