Medifast/Optavia
TINA.org investigated Medifast and its Optavia brand as part of its larger investigations into atypical income claims used by MLM companies.
To read more about TINA.org’s 2023 MLM Income Claims Investigation, click here.
To read more about TINA.org’s 2017 DSA Income Claims Investigation, click here.
How We Took Action
2024
February 14
As part of its 2023 investigation into 100 MLM companies, TINA.org notifies the company of its findings that the company has used atypical income claims to market its business opportunity.
2023
April 13
The FTC sends the company a Notice of Penalty Offenses Concerning Substantiation putting the company on formal notice that it is unlawful to, among other things, make claims relating to the health benefits, safety, and effectiveness of products without competent and reliable scientific evidence to support them, and that disease-treatment claims must be substantiated by at least one randomized, controlled, and double-blinded human clinical trial of the product.
2021
October 26
The FTC sends the company a Notice of Penalty Offenses Concerning Money-Making Opportunities putting the company on formal notice that it is an unfair or deceptive trade practice to misrepresent that profits or earnings are the ordinary, typical or average profits or earnings made by participants, and to fail to disclose conditions affecting income, such as expenses borne by the participants, among other things.
June 30
TINA.org sends a letter, along with a list of more than 660 direct selling companies that includes the company, to the FTC urging it to implement a penalty offense program targeting the direct selling industry and its market-wide practice of using deceptive earnings representations and false health claims.
2017
December 18
As part of its 2017 investigation into all DSA-member companies, TINA.org sends a letter to the company regarding its use of false and unsubstantiated income claims to promote its business opportunity.
The Latest
MLMs Continue to Recruit with Deceptive Earnings Claims
TINA.org investigation finds 98% of MLMs using misleading income claims.
Multilevel Marketing: The Day Job that Doesn’t Pay
More than 97 percent of DSA member companies use or have used misleading income claims.
Class-Action Tracker
Optavia Premier Plans
Allegations: Using dark patterns to enroll consumers in plans that automatically renew, failing to adequately disclose the terms of plans, and making it difficult to cancel
Optavia Premier
Allegations: Failing to adequately disclose the terms of subscriptions for weight-loss products and services