Move Free Supplement Buyers Get Class Cert. In False Ad Lawsuit

On Wednesday, a California federal judge granted Class certification to California and New York customers who say that Reckitt Benckiser LLC falsely advertises its “Move Free Advanced” dietary supplement.

U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria says he believed that the New York and California customers sufficiently supported their claims of false advertising against the supplement maker.

The Move Free Advanced supplement class action lawsuit was filed by Gordon Yamagata of California and Stamatis Pelardis of New York.

They say the supplements are advertised as being able to treat joint pain and stiffness, but argued that the supplement does not work as advertised.

The Move Free Joint Health supplement class action states that the plaintiffs purchased the supplement because they believed it would help treat joint pain and stiffness.

Allegedly, they based this belief on representations present in the labeling and advertisements of the supplement.

Yamagata and Pelardis claim that had they known the supplement would not work as advertised, they would not have purchased it or would not have paid as much as they did for it.

To support their allegation that the Move Free Advanced supplement does not work as advertised, the customers cite studies that show the ingredients in the supplement do not treat joint pain and stiffness.

The Move Free Advanced supplement is one of a family of Move Free supplements, which are glucosamine and chondroitin based.

The MFA advertising class action lawsuit says studies dating back to the 1990s have found that glucosamine and chondroitin, used separately or in combination do not improve pain, mobility, or quality of life.

The glucosamine supplement class action lawsuit goes on to state that other studies have indicated that MFA’s secondary ingredients do not improve these factors, either.

According to Judge Chhabira, “the plaintiffs have submitted evidence that Reckitt Benckiser labeled their ‘Move Free’ glucosamine and chondroitin-based supplements with claims suggesting that the supplements would improve joint functioning, but that scientific studies show the ingredients in the supplements do not actually improve joint functioning.”

Supplement maker Reckitt Benckiser argued to the contrary, saying that “even the studies on which plaintiffs rely show positive results for certain categories of individuals, depending on factors such as age, pain level, length of usage, and the joints affected.”

Based on this, Reckitt argued that the Classes should not be certified because there were too many differences in how customers related to the advertising, how effective the supplements would be on customers with varying medical conditions, and other factors of alleged difference.

Judge Chhabria disagreed with this assertion, saying that these inconsistencies that the company pointed out were not significant and did not indicate that the customers had not sufficiently shown evidence. He also said that the inconsistencies did not prevent customers from being certified as Classes.

The supplement customers are represented by Timothy G. Blood and Thomas J. O’Reardon II of Blood Hurst & O’Reardon LLP and Todd D. Carpenter and Edwin J. Kilpela Jr. of Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter LLP.

The Move Free Advanced Supplement False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Yamagata, et al. v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC, Case No. 3:17-cv-03529, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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