Dr. Oz-Endorsed Companies Must Face Weight Loss Pills Class Action

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

The makers of Labrada brand weight loss pills endorsed by Dr. Oz will continue to face false advertising claims following denial of their motions to dismiss.

Over defendants’ motions to dismiss and strike, U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal determined that plaintiffs Vera Woodard, Teresa Rizzo-Marino and Diane Morrison adequately stated claims based on various theories of false advertising. The judge denied the defendants’ motions in their entirety, allowing the plaintiffs’ claims to proceed unimpeded.

Woodard initiated this Labrada class action lawsuit in February 2016, alleging the defendants made false representations about their Labrada Body Nutrition weight loss products that lured her into purchasing them.

Woodard claimed that Labrada Garcinia Cambogia Dual Action Fat Buster, Labrada Green Coffee Bean Extract Fat Loss Optimizer, Labrada Raspberry Ketones Metabolic Enhancer, and Labrada Fat Buster Fat Loss Aid are all marketed as being able to promote weight loss.

In fact, she claims, the products are unable to convey any weight loss benefits, rendering the defendants’ marketing claims false and deceiving.

Labeling on the Labrada products allegedly says their weight loss effects have been confirmed in “peer reviewed, published” studies. However, those studies were allegedly recalled after it was discovered some of the data used in them was allegedly falsified.

Promotion of these Labrada products allegedly got a bump after Dr. Mehmet C. Oz featured them on “The Doctor Oz Show.” Dr. Oz allegedly touted the active ingredients in the Labrada products as “revolutionary fat busters.”

Woodard was joined in June 2016 by co-plaintiffs Rizzo-Marino and Morrison.

In their motion to dismiss, defendants Lee Labrada, Labrada Bodybuilding Nutrition Inc., and Labrada Nutritional Systems Inc. argued that the plaintiffs failed to make factual allegations specific enough to back up her fraud-based claims.

Judge Bernal disagreed. In the case of the Labrada defendants, the judge said the court could reasonably infer from the plaintiffs’ allegations that the representations on the Labrada products’ labels were fraudulent. Statements like “zero fillers, zero binders, zero artificial ingredients” could plausibly be false given Woodard’s allegations that the products actually do contain such ingredients, the judge said.

Judge Bernal said it’s not necessary for the plaintiffs to allege that the Labrada products they purchased came from the same lot that was found not to contain the advertised amount of active ingredients in testing conducted by the Consumer Advocacy Group. Plaintiffs need only allege they purchased “substantially similar” products, the judge said.

The judge drew similar conclusions on motions to dismiss filed by defendants Naturex Inc.’s and InterHealth Neutraceuticals Inc., both of whom supply ingredients used in the Labrada products.

Plaintiffs claim that InterHealth, which supplies the active ingredient SuperCitrimax featured in some of the Labrada products, can be liable for misstatements on the product’s label based on the amount of control they exercise over the use of SuperCitrimax.

Judge Bernal found the plaintiffs’ allegations were adequate to back up that claim. He also found the plaintiffs sufficiently stated a claim for fraud based on allegations that defendant Naturex “had knowledge of, and authorized the misrepresentations on the Products’ labels.”

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Ronald A. Marron and Michael T. Houchin of The Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron

The Labrada Weight Loss Supplement False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Veda Woodard, et al. v. Lee Labrada, et al., Case No. 5:16­-cv-­00189, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: On June 15, 2018, Dr. Oz and his television show’s producers reportedly agreed to pay $5.25 million to settle a class action lawsuit claiming he misrepresented the effectiveness of Labrada brand weight loss pills.