Class Action Alleges SlimFast ‘Clinically Proven’ Weight-Loss Claims Are Patently False, Misleading

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SlimFast has falsely, misleadingly and deceptively represented to consumers that its meal replacement products are “clinically proven” to cause and maintain weight loss, a proposed class action alleges.

The 24-page lawsuit relays that although defendant KSF Acquisition Corporation has ubiquitously claimed that each SlimFast meal replacement product is “clinically proven” to help consumers “Lose Weight & Keep It Off,” the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs has determined that the company should stop using these and other “unqualified” representations, in particular because claims concerning a product’s efficacy “must closely match the underlying evidence.” The National Advertising Division, an independent system of self-regulation within the advertising industry designed to bolster consumer trust, stressed that claims a company purports to be backed by scientific evidence so as to establish truth “convey an especially strong message to consumers,” the lawsuit says. 

According to the case, the clinical studies and reports relied upon by SlimFast in claiming its more than 53 varieties of meal replacement products are “clinically proven” to help with and maintain weight loss do not support this representation, as none of the products, the suit says, have been scientifically proven to perform as advertised. 

“By deceptively misrepresenting the efficacy of each SlimFast Product, Defendant has defrauded consumers into purchasing the SlimFast Products and has commanded and continues to command a price premium for each such product,” the lawsuit alleges. 

Citing the NAD decision criticizing SlimFast’s use of the “clinically proven” claim, the case says the defendant has itself acknowledged that “SlimFast has not clinically tested the weight-loss efficacy of any of its current products that bear the claim ‘clinically proven to lose weight and keep it off.’” Moreover, SlimFast, the suit says, did not dispute the fact that each clinical study it relies upon in support of its “clinically proven” claim tested products and plans that are different from any of the currently available SlimFast products and plans. 

“Stated otherwise, this is not a lack of substantiation claim; it is an affirmative falsehood based on the absence of any testing,” the complaint reads. “Arrogantly, SlimFast did not even bother with the trope of an ‘Industry Funded Study.’ Instead, they just made claims divorced from any pretext of being ‘clinically proven.’” 

Consumers have been injured financially in that they bought “clinically proven” SlimFast products based on a “reasonable expectation as to their premium quality and efficacy,” the suit says.

NAD stated in its announcement that SlimFast “provided no evidence that each SlimFast product has been individually evaluated,” and that the evidence that was produced “was limited to studies and expert reports” on discontinued SlimFast products. 

Moreover, NAD noted that SlimFast’s “clinically proven” evidence established that consuming a 1,200- to 1,400-calorie diet is “clinically proven to help lose weight.” The problem with this, NAD wrote, is that because the company’s advertising claim is not limited to consuming a low-calorie diet, the representation “expressly and by implication conveys the message that the current products themselves have been clinically proven to allow consumers to lose weight and keep it off.” 

NAD added that SlimFast has stated it will appeal the group’s decision. 

The lawsuit looks to represent all consumers who, within the applicable statute of limitations period, bought in New York, whether online or in person, SlimFast products warranted as being “Clinically Proven” to help “Lose Weight & Keep It Off.”

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