The Federal Trade Commission today announced the first law enforcement crackdown on deceptive claims in the growing market for cannabidiol (CBD) products. The FTC is taking action against six sellers of CBD-containing products for allegedly making a wide range of scientifically unsupported claims about their ability to treat serious health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease, and others. The FTC is requiring each of the companies, and individuals behind them, to stop making such unsupported health claims immediately, and several will pay monetary judgments to the agency. The orders settling the FTC’s complaints also bar the respondents from similar deceptive advertising in the future, and require that they have scientific evidence to support any health claims they make for CBD and other products. "The six settlements announced today send a clear message to the burgeoning CBD industry: Don’t make spurious health claims that are unsupported by medical science," said Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The crackdown, Operation CBDeceit, is part of the Commission’s ongoing effort to protect consumers from false, deceptive, and misleading health claims made in advertisements on websites and through social media companies such as Twitter. According to the FTC’s complaint against Utah-based companies Bionatrol Health, LLC and Isle Revive, LLC, and two former managers and owners, since at least December 2019 the respondents sold a CBD oil to consumers on two websites. Among other things, the respondents allegedly claimed without substantiation that their CBD product is safe for all users, treats pain better than prescription medications like OxyContin, and prevents and treats age-related cognitive decline and chronic pain. The respondents also claimed, without scientific evidence, that CBD oil is "medically proven" to improve a variety of conditions, according to the FTC’s complaint. In addition, the FTC alleges the respondents deceived consumers who ordered one bottle of their CBD oil by changing the order to five bottles without consumers’ consent.

The proposed administrative order settling the FTC’s charges prohibits the respondents from making certain prevention, treatment, or safety claims about dietary supplements, foods, and drugs without human clinical testing to substantiate the claims. It also requires competent and reliable scientific evidence for other health-related product claims, and prohibits the respondents from misrepresenting the cost of any good or service and from charging consumers without their express, informed consent. Finally, it requires the corporate respondents and individual respondent Marcello Torre to pay $20,000 to the FTC and to noti firms made a number of false or unsubstantiated claims, including that CBD effectively treats, prevents, or mitigates serious diseases and conditions like artery blockage, cancer, glaucoma, autism, and schizophrenia, among many others.