Schiff Move Free Class Action Says Joint Health Supplements Don’t Work

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Two purchasers of Schiff Move Free dietary supplements say these products can’t possibly provide the joint health benefits promised on their labeling.

Plaintiffs Gordon Yamagata and Stamatis Pelardis are challenging defendant Reckitt Benckiser LLC, the makers of Schiff Move Free glucosamine and chondroitin supplements. According to the plaintiffs, these products are misleadingly advertised with false promises of joint health benefits.

Contrary to these products’ labeling, the plaintiffs say, scientific studies show that glucosamine and chondroitin supplements don’t have any particular beneficial effect on joint health.

The plaintiffs specifically take issue with four Schiff products: Schiff Move Free Advanced Triple Strength, Schiff Move Free Advanced Plus MSM, Schiff Move Free Advanced Plus MSM & Vitamin D, and Schiff Move Free Double Strength.

The Move Free Advanced products are labeled as “Joint Health” supplements, the plaintiffs say. Their labels offer “Flexibility, Comfort, Lubrication” and feature imagery that draws attention to functioning joints.

The label on Move Free Double Strength identifies the product as a “Joint Strengthener” and purports that the product can “Cushion, lubricate and nourish your joints,” according to the plaintiffs.

The labels make further representations about the products’ featured ingredients, claiming that glucosamine “[h]elps by strengthening, protecting and rebuilding joints” and chondroitin “[a]ssists in lubricating and cushioning joints.”

Similar representations appear on the Move Free websites, the plaintiffs say, promising that each of the Move Free products “Supports Joint Health” and “Comforts Joints.”

But according to Yamagata and Pelardis, clinical trials examining the effects of glucosamine and chondroitin do not show that they have any beneficial effect on joint health.

The plaintiffs cite the GAIT study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006. Researchers in that study reported finding no particular effect from glucosamine and chondroitin, neither alone nor in combination with each other.

More results from the GAIT study were published in 2008, which the plaintiffs say showed that glucosamine and chondroitin had no particular effect on joint space width and did not rebuild cartilage.

A third round of GAIT study results released in 2010 concluded that “glucosamine and chondroitin do not provide pain, function, stiffness or mobility benefits,” the plaintiffs allege. The authors also determined that “glucosamine and chondroitin do not benefit those with moderate-to-severe knee pain.”

Yamagata and Pelardis both say they bought Move Free products in reliance on representations that the products would provide joint health benefits. They allege they never would have bought these products had they known they can’t actually provide such benefits.

The plaintiffs are proposing to represent three specific Classes. Two Classes would cover persons who purchased any Move Free products within the applicable statutory limitations period in California and New York, respectively. The third class would cover senior citizens who purchased any of the products in California.

They seek a court order certifying their proposed Classes and appointing them as class representatives and their attorneys as class counsel. They seek an award of damages, restitution and disgorgement of related profits, court costs and attorneys’ fees. They are also asking for injunctive relief requiring the defendant to cease the advertising at issue and to conduct a corrective advertising campaign.

Plaintiffs’ counsel in this Move Free class action lawsuit are attorneys Todd D. Carpenter of Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter LLP, and Timothy G. Blood and Thomas J. O’Reardon II of Blood Hurst & O’Reardon LLP.

The Schiff Move Free False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Gordon Yamagata and Stamatis Pelardis v. Reckitt Benckiser LLC, Case No. 3:17-cv-03529, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On June 5, 2019, 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.