1-800-GET-THIN Lap-Band Company Settles False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit

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Top Surgeons, one of the companies behind the 1-800-GET-THIN promotion for Lap-Band weight-loss surgery, has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle false advertising allegations raised in a class action lawsuit filed by relatives of two dead Lap-Band patients.

Plaintiffs Ana Renteria and Laura Faitro filed the class action lawsuit in 2011 after their loved ones, and several other people between 2005 and 2011, died from the Lap-Band surgery. They accused Top Surgeons, which owned and operated the weight-loss business, and several other companies – including several surgery centers and marketing company 1-800-GET-THIN, LLC – of using dozens of billboards, television ads and radio ads to promote the weight-loss surgery without accurately disclosing the risks associated with the procedure.

The class action lawsuit further accused the companies of employing unqualified physicians and allowing surgeries to be performed in unsanitary conditions.

In December 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accused 1-800-GET-THIN, LLC of using misleading advertisements for the Lap-Band surgery in violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which prohibits false advertising of a device and requires all advertisements to provide relevant warnings, precautions, side effects and contraindications.

The FDA said warnings about the risks were too small to read on billboards that were plastered across Southern California, and the company was told to immediately cease all Lap-Band marketing that violated the FDCA.

Several wrongful death lawsuits were filed after the FDA warning, in addition to Renteria’s and Faitro’s class action lawsuit. They sought damages from the companies for false advertising.

Top Surgeons is the only defendant paying out in the proposed class action settlement, and is doing so without any admission of wrongdoing. The other defendants were dismissed from the case without admission of liability or financial penalty.

The proposed deal will require Top Surgeons to spend $100,000 on billboard advertising throughout Southern California warning the public of the risks of Lap-Band weight-loss surgery.

The company will also pay $500,000 in compensation to an estimated 11,000 Class Members, which include people who contacted 1-800-GET-THIN or 1-800-GET-SLIM and were later billed for medical service.

The rest of the proposed class action settlement will go to legal expenses, the named plaintiffs, and the Settlement Administrator.

Allergan, Inc., the company that makes the Lap-Band, said early last year that it would no longer sell the device to the surgery centers affiliated with the 1-800-GET-THIN ads.