Skechers Faces Consumer Fraud Class Action over Shape-Ups Toning Shoes

Skechers Faces Consumer Fraud Class Action over Shape-Ups Toning Shoes

March 2 2012

Baltimore, MD: A consumer fraud
class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of consumers who allege
misleading advertising influenced their decision to buy Skechers“Shape-Ups” toning shoes.



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The lawsuit seeks money damages for consumers who paid a “premium price”
for Skechers “Shape-Ups” based on TV, print and Internet ads that
touted the toning shoes’ health benefits.

In reality, the complaint alleges, the shoes provide no additional
health benefits. Instead, they pose a risk of injury due to their
pronounced rocker bottom sole, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit seeks money damages and an order that would stop Skechers from “deceptive and unlawful advertising.”

According to the lawsuit, the shoes are marketed, sold and promoted by Skechers, U.S.A., Inc., and its subsidiaries.

The complaint states that Skechers is currently being investigated for
its toning shoes marketing claims by the Federal Trade Commission. In
September, the FTC reached a $25 million settlement with Reebok for
making similar fitness claims about its own brand of toning shoes, the
lawsuit states. Footwear News estimates that Skechers will face a fine
of $75 million.

In particular, the lawsuit alleges that Skechers promoted that its
“Shape-Ups” would provide health benefits “without setting foot in a
gym.”

However, the plaintiffs claim, the company has produced no valid
scientific proof that the toning shoes provide any greater benefit than
regular athletic shoes.

The complaint cites an American Council on Exercise study that
concluded, “There is simply no evidence to support the claims that these
shoes will help wearers exercise more intensely, burn more calories or
improve muscle strength and tone.”

However, the lawsuit alleges, the shoes do pose health risks. Because
the rocker bottom soles create instability and change gait mechanics,
they can trigger chronic injuries and cause wearers to fall and suffer
injuries, the plaintiffs claim.

An attorney representing the plaintiffs notes a May 2011 Consumer
Reports article stating that toning shoes had produced more injury
reports than any other product in its database. The reported injuries
included tendinitis and foot, leg and hip pain. The more severe reported
injuries included broken bones.

Skechers “Shape-Ups" Injury Class Action Legal Help
If you or a loved one has suffered damages in this case, please fill in
the form to the right and your complaint will be sent to a lawyer who
may evaluate your claim at no cost or obligation.

  RELATED NEWS

• Skechers Out With New Product, Advertising. Will History Repeat Itself?
• Skechers False Advertising Settlement Given the Green Light
• Fitness Trainers Call Out Skechers on Shape-up Claims
• Skechers' Sketchy Claims Result in a $40 Million Fine

Targeting Supplements at Major Retailers - NYTimes.com

New York Attorney General Targets Supplements at Major Retailers - NYTimes.com

A
Target in East Harlem. It and three other retailers — GNC, Walgreens
and Walmart — were accused of selling fraudulent supplements.Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times

The New York State
attorney general’s office accused four major retailers on Monday of
selling fraudulent and potentially dangerous herbal supplements and
demanded that they remove the products from their shelves.

The authorities said
they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal
supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and
Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not
contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills
labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers
like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases
substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.

The investigation came
as a welcome surprise to health experts who have long complained about
the quality and safety of dietary supplements, which are exempt from the
strict regulatory oversight applied to prescription drugs.

The Food and Drug
Administration has targeted individual supplements found to contain
dangerous ingredients. But the announcement Monday was the first time
that a law enforcement agency had threatened the biggest retail and
drugstore chains with legal action for selling what it said were
deliberately misleading herbal products.

Among the attorney
general’s findings was a popular store brand of ginseng pills at
Walgreens, promoted for “physical endurance and vitality,” that
contained only powdered garlic and rice. At Walmart, the authorities
found that its ginkgo biloba, a Chinese plant promoted as a memory
enhancer, contained little more than powdered radish, houseplants and
wheat — despite a claim on the label that the product was wheat- and
gluten-free.

Three out of six
herbal products at Target — ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort and valerian
root, a sleep aid — tested negative for the herbs on their labels. But
they did contain powdered rice, beans, peas and wild carrots. And at
GNC, the agency said, it found pills with unlisted ingredients used as
fillers, like powdered legumes, the class of plants that includes
peanuts and soybeans, a hazard for people with allergies.

The attorney general sent the four retailers cease-and-desist letters on Monday and demanded that they explain what procedures they use to verify the ingredients in their supplements.

“Mislabeling,
contamination and false advertising are illegal,” said Eric T.
Schneiderman, the state attorney general. “They also pose unacceptable
risks to New York families — especially those with allergies to hidden
ingredients.”

The attorney general’s investigation was prompted by an article in the New York Times
in 2013 that raised questions about widespread labeling fraud in the
supplement industry. The article referred to research at the University
of Guelph in Canada that found that as many as a third of herbal
supplements tested did not contain the plants listed on their labels —
only cheap fillers instead.

Industry
representatives have argued that any problems are caused by a handful of
companies on the fringe of the industry. But New York’s investigation
specifically targeted store brands at the nation’s drugstore and retail
giants, which suggests that the problems are widespread.

“If this data is
accurate, then it is an unbelievably devastating indictment of the
industry,” said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor at Harvard
Medical School and an expert on supplement safety. “We’re talking about
products at mainstream retailers like Walmart and Walgreens that are
expected to be the absolute highest quality.”

Photo

Health supplements on display at Walgreens in Times Square in Manhattan.Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times

In response to the
findings, Walgreens said it would remove the products from its shelves
nationwide, even though only New York State had demanded it. Walmart
said it would reach out to the suppliers of its supplements “and take
appropriate action.”

A spokeswoman for GNC
said that the company would cooperate with the attorney general “in all
appropriate ways,” but that it stood behind the quality and purity of
its store brand supplements. The company said it tested all of its
products “using validated and widely used testing methods.”

Target did not respond to requests for comment.

The F.D.A. requires
that companies verify that every supplement they manufacture is safe and
accurately labeled. But the system essentially operates on the honor
code.

Under a 1994 federal
law, supplements are exempt from the F.D.A.’s strict approval process
for prescription drugs, which requires reviews of a product’s safety and
effectiveness before it goes to market.

The law’s sponsor and
chief architect, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, is a
steadfast supporter of supplements. He has accepted hundreds of
thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the industry and
repeatedly intervened in Washington to quash proposed legislation that
would toughen the rules.

Mr. Hatch led a
successful fight against a proposed amendment in 2012 that would have
required supplement makers to register their products with the F.D.A.
and provide details about their ingredients. Speaking on the floor of
the Senate at the time, Mr. Hatch said the amendment was based on “a
misguided presumption that the current regulatory framework for dietary
supplements is flawed.”

Critics say it is all
too easy for dangerous supplements to reach the market because they are
not subject to a review or approval process. Under current law,
supplements are assumed to be safe until the authorities can prove
otherwise. And in general, they are pulled from shelves only after
serious injuries occur — which is not uncommon.

In 2013, for example,
an outbreak of hepatitis that struck at least 72 people in 16 states was
traced to a tainted supplement. Three people required liver
transplants, and one woman died.

It is not only
consumers. Hospitals have been affected, too. In December, an infant at a
Connecticut hospital died when doctors gave the child a popular
probiotic supplement that was later found to be contaminated with yeast.
After the child’s death, the F.D.A. issued a warning to the public that
reiterated its limited control over supplements.

“These products are
not subject to F.D.A.’s premarket review or approval requirements for
safety and effectiveness,” the F.D.A. stated, “nor to the agency’s
rigorous manufacturing and testing standards for drugs.”

As part of its
investigation, the attorney general’s office bought 78 bottles of the
leading brands of herbal supplements from a dozen Walmart, Target,
Walgreens and GNC locations across New York State. Then the agency
analyzed the products using DNA bar coding, a type of genetic
fingerprinting that the agency has used to root out labeling fraud in
the seafood industry.

The technology allows
scientists to identify plants and animals by looking for short sequences
of DNA unique to each organism, which can then be quickly analyzed —
much like the bar codes on grocery items — and compared with others in
an electronic database. The technology can single out which plants a
supplement contains by identifying its unique DNA.

Dr. Cohen at Harvard
said that the attorney general’s test results were so extreme that he
found them hard to accept. He said it was possible that the tests had
failed to detect some plants even when they were present because the
manufacturing process had destroyed their DNA.

But that does not
explain why the tests found so many supplements with no DNA from the
herbs on their labels but plenty of DNA from unlisted ingredients, said
Marty Mack, an executive deputy attorney general in New York. “The
absence of DNA does not explain the high percentage of contaminants
found in these products,” he said. “The burden is now with the industry
to prove what is in these supplements.”

Related: “What’s in Those Supplements?”