TINA.org to Nerium: Take Down Questionable Health and Income Claims

UPDATE 9/28/23: Nearly four years after the FTC filed a lawsuit against Nerium/Neora accusing the company of, among other things, operating an illegal pyramid scheme, a federal court has found that the agency failed to provide enough evidence to support its claims and has entered a final judgment in favor of the company. The FTC has the option to appeal the decision, which followed a non-jury trial. Our original article follows.

Brazenly ignoring FTC and FDA law (and the DSA code of ethics), which explicitly prohibit unsubstantiated health claims and exaggerated income claims, the Multilevel Marketing – a way of distributing products or services in which the distributors earn income from their own retail sales and from retail sales made by their direct and indirect recruits. company Nerium International and its distributors, who market anti-aging products that include creams, serums and a brain supplement, continue to litter the internet with advertisements touting the miracle effects of its products, and claims that Nerium brings members financial freedom. Prompted by Nerium’s compliance department’s apparent inability to spot and silence these posts, TINA.org is launching a Twitter campaign — #NeriumTruth – to expose dozens of URLs making inappropriate health and income claims about Nerium. The goal is to incentivize Nerium’s compliance department to seriously “Get Real” as it promotes in its 2017 conventions and get the job done.

Why #NeriumTruth

Over a year ago, TINA.org alerted Nerium, the FTC, and the DSA that improper health and income claims about Nerium were all over the internet. At that time, TINA.org provided more than 100 examples of disease treatment claims being made that assert Nerium products could treat, prevent and/or cure everything from Alzheimer’s to gangrene to skin lesions, and more than 100 exaggerated income claims. Since that time, TINA.org has catalogued more than 450 inappropriate health and income claims made by Nerium and its distributors.

In response, Nerium has consistently said that it is “interest[ed] in protecting consumers from deceptive advertising,” and that the company takes “proactive measures . . . in an effort to prevent these types of issues from occurring in the first place.”

Promises, promises

For all of Nerium’s talk, however, it is clear that complying with FTC and FDA law is not the company’s top priority. This fact is evident from the plethora of URLs continuing to make Nerium health claims. For example, here are four recent posts made by Nerium distributors:

As for exaggerated income claims, one need look no further than Nerium’s own website, where you will find the following claims (despite the fact that the majority of Nerium distributors make little to no money):

• “Nerium’s mission is to Make People Better. One of the ways we live that out is helping people from all walks of life experience financial success, and live out their dreams.”
• “SEE HOW PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU ARE BUILDING THEIR DREAM LIFESTYLE!”
• “Significant Earning Potential”
• “See how Dale and Vanessa solved their financial worries and created lasting memories as a family along the way!”
• “Follow Aana’s inspirational journey of building her dream life with Nerium!”
• “Jessica barely knew anything about skincare, but that didn’t stop her from earning her Lexus and getting her family’s finances back on track!”
• “Nerium not only gave Nina the opportunity to earn a Lexus, it gave her the opportunity to homeschool her kids.”
• “GET REWARDED TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE,” accompanied by photos of luxury cars and tropical vacations.
• “Live life on your own terms | Enjoy financial freedom | Have fun and help others to have fun”.

Join the campaign

If you’d like to help motivate Nerium to silence posts and videos making unsubstantiated health and income claims, feel free to join our Twitter campaign and expose any inappropriate Nerium health and/or income claims using #NeriumTruth.