United States - FTC Commissioners Uphold Trial Judge's Decision on POM Wonderful's Deceptive Health Claims Decision

The FTC’s Commissioners, considering an appeal from a decision by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), upheld the ALJ’s decision that the marketers of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice and POMx supplements deceptively advertised their products. The Commission agreed that POM did not have adequate support for its claims that the products could treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction, and that they were clinically proven to work. The Commission Opinion found that the POM marketers made deceptive claims in 36 advertisements and promotional materials challenged at trial going beyond the ALJ’s ruling, which found false or deceptive claims in 19 of the challenged items.

As part of its Opinion, the Commission issued a Final Order barring the POM marketers from making any claim that a food, drug, or dietary supplement is “effective in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of any disease,” including heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction, unless the claim is supported by two randomized, well-controlled, human clinical trials. The Order also prohibits misrepresentations regarding any test, study, or research, and requires competent and reliable scientific evidence to support claims about the “health benefits, performance, or efficacy” of any food, drug, or dietary supplement. The Commission also rejected the POM respondents’ arguments that the Commission’s actions violated their constitutional rights.