Six Star Pro N.O. Fury False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit Filed

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A class action lawsuit accusing Iovate Health Sciences Inc. of falsely advertising a line of dietary supplements was filed in California federal court on August 22. The plaintiffs allege that Iovate falsely claims that the supplements help boost the size of muscles.

The products at issue include Iovate’s Six Star Pro Nutrition N.O. Fury caplets. These caplets are similar to L-Arginine products sold by General Nutrition Corp., which have also been the recent target of a class action lawsuit with similar allegations.

Plaintiff Patrick Hesano filed the class action lawsuit after purchasing Six Star Pro Nutrition N.O. Fury from www.cvs.com, a retailer that sells the Iovate product throughout the United States. When making the decision to purchase Six Star, he reviewed the product’s label and the information on the CVS website, the class action lawsuit says.

He alleges relied on the company’s claims, which included statements such as: “Engineered to ignite massive muscle pumps,” “Professional strength N.O. Fury caplets flood your system with arginine and are designed to enhance nitric oxide levels” and “Formulated for increased muscle hardness & fullness after just one dose. Taken before your workouts, professional strength N.O. Fury caplets are designed to deliver overpowering, muscle-swelling pumps and extreme muscle hardness and fullness, after your very first dose!”

L-Arginine is an amino acid that is found naturally in the body. Once it metabolizes into Nitric Oxide (NO), it helps to expand the blood vessels and increase blood flow. Hesano claims that Iovate incorrectly bases is marketing claims on the assumption that oral L-Arginine supplements will have the same effect.

“Instead, it has been found numerous times in reliable scientific studies that Arginine supplements, when taken orally, only increase plasma arginine levels and do not metabolize into NO or induce vasodilation (blood flow),” the Iovate class action lawsuit says. According to Hesano, the Six Star supplements provide no greater muscle-building benefit than exercise alone.

Hesano alleges that he was deceived into spending money on a product that does not work. He claims that Iovate ignored scientific evidence showing that its product was ineffective, and continued to market the ineffective product anyway. By filing his class action lawsuit, he seeks to represent a statewide class of consumers who purchased Six Star supplements within the last four years. He is bringing claims for breach of express warranty and violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law, Legal Remedies Act and False Advertising Law.

In his class action lawsuit, Hesano claims that Iovate used unfair, deceptive, fraudulent and misleading practices to trick consumers into purchasing the Six Star caplets. He is seeking an order to compel Iovate to stop using misleading tactics to market the products, destroy all deceptive marketing materials, participate in a corrective advertising campaign and pay Class Members in the amount by which the company was unjustly enriched.

Iovate is not a stranger to false advertising accusations. In January 2012, Iovate paid $1.5 million to settle claims from 10 California district attorneys that the company had made false and misleading statements about the efficacy of a number of its supplements. In 2010, it settled similar claims with the Federal Trade Commission for $5.5 million.

Hesano is represented by Nick Suciu III of Oliver Law Group PC and Brian Tomina.

The Iovate L-Arginine Supplement Class Action Lawsuit is Hesano v. Iovate Health Sciences Inc., Case No. 3:13-cv-01960, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

UPDATE: A federal judge refused to dismiss the Six Star Pro N.O. Fury class action lawsuit, rejecting Iovate’s arguments that the plaintiff lacked standing.