The San Benito County District Attorney’s office is joining six
other counties in a lawsuit to stop misleading advertising
practices by companies selling human growth hormone.
The San Benito County District Attorney’s office is joining six other counties in a lawsuit to stop misleading advertising practices by companies selling human growth hormone.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this week against Cambridge Research Laboratories out of Delaware and Atlanta-based Sandco International, Inc., is intended to force the companies to stop a series of allegedly false and misleading TV and print advertisements for a product called HGH Gold.
The District Attorney’s office is joining district attorneys in San Francisco, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Kern and Alameda counties and the city attorney of San Diego in civil suit estimated at a minimum of $600,000.
“The decision to join in the action to protect San Benito County residents was made after it was discovered that Cambridge was in fact targeting our county,” Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagner said.
The suit was filed to stop misleading advertising and allegedly unfair business practices involving sales of HGH Gold, a dietary supplement promoted in the companies’ advertisements as a virtual cure-all that does everything from reverse aging to cure diseases.
Other unfounded claims in the ads state that HGH Gold increases resistance to illness, decreases cholesterol and triglyceride levels and normalizes blood pressure.
The suit alleges that nearly all of the claims in the advertisements and all other instances of false and misleading advertising constitute unfair business practices under state law and are a violation of the state’s business code.
Concerned about the companies’ claims, the district attorneys in the lawsuit reportedly asked Cambridge and Sandco in April 2001 to provide proof that their product can do what they claim it does.
To date, neither company has provided proof that the product lives up to its advertising.
San Benito County became involved when the district attorney’s office started seeing advertisements for HGH Gold in local publications.
“The residents of San Benito County can expect swift action by this office whenever they are preyed upon by unscrupulous businesses or corporations. We owe that type of protection to the community,” Wagner said.
Under state law, advertisements that can not be substantiated or live up to their promises are a violation of fair business practices and can be fined $2,500 in civil penalties for each practice deemed unfair at a minimum of $250,000, and $2,500 in civil penalties can be assessed for each instance of false and misleading advertising, also at a $250,000 minimum.
