Having simply settled a six-year lengthy lawsuit towards Dave and Barb Pitcock, Youngevity seems to be concentrating on them once more.
This time by way of Innov8tive Diet and mum or dad firm LaCore Enterprises.
Oh and apparently Innov8tive Diet’s patches don’t comprise what’s marketed, classifying them as unapproved medication.
LaCore Enterprises is owned by Terry LaCore (proper) and runs a secure of MLM corporations.
Innov8tive Diet is one such firm, with the Pitcocks serving as executives.
Named defendants in Youngevity’s lawsuit embody:
- Innov8tive Diet
- LaCore Enterprises LLC
- The Grace Agency
- LaCore Nutraceuticals Inc.
- The Grace Agency PC and
- LaCore Labs
Though they’re introduced up within the lawsuit quite a bit, Dave and Barb Pitcock (proper) will not be named defendants.
At difficulty in Youngevity’s Might nineteenth filed grievance are Innov8tive Diet’s “patch merchandise”.
Particularly, the comparative advertising and marketing Innov8tive Diet makes use of to market its patches.
Innov8tive and Innov8tive promoters … use comparative promoting by claiming both explicitly or implicitly that their merchandise use a mechanism for customers to soak up nutritional vitamins and vitamins that’s superior to Youngevity’s capsule, liquid, and powder primarily based dietary dietary supplements.
Youngevity alleges that Innov8tive Diet’s advertising and marketing claims, that it then attracts comparisons towards Youngevity with, are flat-out falsehoods.
Innov8tive’s promoting claims concerning absorption of dietary elements by way of the pores and skin utilizing topical patches are a main element of its product promoting.
Innov8tive’s promoting claims recognized above are false.
Innov8tive and Innov8tive promoters have used a multi-year false promoting marketing campaign to promote product, falsely claiming that Innov8tive merchandise comprise sure nutritional vitamins and vitamins, and falsely representing that its patch merchandise comprise a novel or proprietary nanotechnology permitting customers to effectively ingest dietary elements transdermally.
Nonetheless, as defined beneath, the Innov8tive patch merchandise don’t comprise all (if any) of the claimed or labeled nutritional vitamins and vitamins, and people nutritional vitamins and vitamins will not be absorbable by way of the pores and skin, as claimed.
Youngevity claims Innov8tive Diet’s conduct is injuring it and inflicting damages.
Youngevity and Innov8tive are … direct rivals as a result of the Pitcocks, as former high-level Youngevity distributors and present Innov8tive promoters, executives, and/or house owners, market Innov8tive merchandise on to Youngevity distributors and clients.
By these advertising and marketing and promotional efforts, Innov8tive makes an attempt to take clients immediately from Youngevity.
Youngevity has misplaced distributors and clients to Innov8tive.
Citing dietary labels from a variety of Innov8tive Diet’s merchandise, Youngevity bases its allegations impartial testing.
Youngevity retained an accredited laboratory to independently check the Innov8tive Full Multi-Vitamin Patch to find out whether or not it incorporates the quantity of minerals claimed by Innov8tive on that product’s complement info panel.
The accredited laboratory’s check outcomes show that claims on the Innov8tive Full Multi-Vitamin Patch’s Complement Info panel are actually false.
Youngevity don’t title the lab, however state they went on to rent S&N Labs to confirm the primary labs outcomes.
At face worth, the proof collected is fairly damning.
As cited by Youngevity, right here’s the diet label for Innov8tive Diet’s multivitamin patch:
Right here’s what S&N Labs discovered;
That’s an entire lot of zeroes.
And the zeroes proceed all through the remainder of Innov8tive Nutriton’s product line:
S&N Labs’ Report of Evaluation reveals that Innov8tive’s patch merchandise didn’t comprise any of the examined nutritional vitamins, minerals, and dietary elements on the ranges recognized on the patch merchandise’ complement info panels.
I can’t personally converse to accuracy of S&N Labs’ report however the Lab Director has signed off on the included exhibit.
If these figures are remotely correct, then it seems Innov8tive Diet’s patches are simply plastic squares.
I don’t even have to depend on Youngevity’s allegations to level out what this implies for Innov8tive Diet. In BehindMLM’s revealed Innov8tive Diet assessment we particularly coated their advertising and marketing claims;
Innov8tive Diet declare their patches are constituted of “woven nanotechnology”. They state this enables them to place extra lively ingredient of their patches, versus conventional “plastic patches”.
These zeroes actually don’t characterize “extra lively elements”.
The Innov8tive patches weigh between 66 and 90 milligrams per patch.
Apart from the Innov8tive Really feel Gr8 Patch, the complement info panel for the Innov8tive patch merchandise declare that such merchandise comprise between 1580 and 8704 milligrams of lively elements per patch.
Sometimes I discover myself solely utilizing the phrase “math is math” in reference to MLM Ponzi schemes.
8704 mg of elements on a 90 mg patch? Appears to be like like I’ve a brand new utility (no pun meant).
As to Innov8tive Diet’s claims concerning supply of (non-existent) vitamins by way of the pores and skin, Youngevity writes;
The micronutrients purportedly contained within the Defendants’ patch merchandise don’t surpass the bodily barrier of the pores and skin in quantities or portions equal to these marketed by Defendants.
Because of a wide range of components, most compounds in Defendants’ merchandise lack the physico-chemical traits essential to permeate the pores and skin in enough portions.
The Defendants’ declare that customers are able to receiving the labeled quantities of dietary elements by utilizing the merchandise as directed, i.e., by making use of the patch to the higher physique. That declare is fake.
Having established that Innov8tive Diet’s patches don’t comprise any elements, and the supply methodology is nonsense, Youngevity brings it again round to the advertising and marketing strategies (emphasis mine).
In an 18:36 minute video filmed by Barb Pitcock and posted to Dave Pitcock’s Fb web page on March 5, 2020, Dave Pitcock discusses the
difficulties of ingesting dietary dietary supplements in capsule kind.The video depicts different dietary dietary supplements, together with Youngevity merchandise and Youngevity packaging, in capsule and powder kinds.
Regardless of Defendants’ patch merchandise not containing the quantities of dietary elements claimed on the Complement Info panels, and the human physique’s incapacity to soak up these dietary elements in quantities claimed on the Defendants’ labels, Innov8tive, by way of its promoters, has repeatedly claimed in promoting that Innov8tive merchandise are a extra environment friendly approach to supply the physique with nutritional vitamins and vitamins than capsules, powders, and liquid dietary dietary supplements, equivalent to these bought by Youngevity.
Shoppers wouldn’t buy the Innov8tive merchandise in the event that they knew that, in fact, the patches can’t impart to the physique the amount of nutritional vitamins and vitamins claimed on the Defendants’ patch merchandise’ labels transdermally.
The majority of Youngevity’s grievance then lists instance after instance of Innov8tive Diet’s alleged misleading advertising and marketing conduct.
On the social media platform TikTok, an Innov8tive promoter posted a video displaying varied dietary dietary supplements in capsule kind, together with Youngevity’s Gluco-Gel product, and stating:
“This was once my month-to-month provide of multi nutritional vitamins and Omega 3s [showing dietary supplements in capsule form, including Youngevity product] till I discovered this superior product [showing Innov8tive Complete Multi Vitamin Patch] that’s actually patches that you simply put in your physique.
They’ve every thing that I used to take and extra in them and now I can do away with all of this [showing dietary supplements in capsule form, including Youngevity product.].”
The Defendants’ comparative promoting is particularly meant to injure Youngevity as a result of that promoting has been directed at Youngevity distributors and clients and claims superiority over Youngevity merchandise.
The Pitcocks had been previously high-level Youngevity distributors for practically 4 years.
Youngevity distributors due to this fact have entry to and think about the Pitcocks’ social media platforms (i.e., by way of contacts on Fb.com that the Pitcocks shaped after they had been with Youngevity).
With information of that truth, the Pitcocks use promotional movies claiming that the Defendants’ merchandise are superior to conventional dietary dietary supplements, like Youngevity’s merchandise, and have used these false claims to induce Youngevity distributors and clients to depart Youngevity for Innov8tive.
Youngevity has suffered harm on account of Defendants’ false and deceptive claims as a result of Youngevity distributors, potential distributors,
clients, and potential clients have joined Innov8tive as an alternative of Youngevity, have left Youngevity for Innov8tive, and have bought Innov8tive merchandise as an alternative of Youngevity merchandise.
One significantly attention-grabbing facet of Youngevity’s lawsuit is the recharacterization of Innov8tive Diet’s patches as “unapproved and misbranded medication”.
Innov8tive and Innov8tive promoters unlawfully label and market their merchandise as dietary dietary supplements when, the truth is, they’re unapproved and misbranded medication.
That is primarily based on California’s and the FDA’s definition of a dietary complement.
California regulates meals, medication, and dietary dietary supplements by way of the Sherman Meals, Drug, and Beauty Regulation (“Sherman Regulation”).
Beneath California regulation, a “dietary complement” have to be meant for oral consumption and ingestion within the gastrointestinal tract in pill, capsule, powder, softgel, gelcap, or liquid kind.
The regulatory definition of “dietary complement” beneath the California Sherman Regulation mirrors the FDA’s definitional construction for dietary
dietary supplements. The Federal FDCA makes use of practically an identical language to outline “dietary complement”.Each the Sherman Regulation and the FDCA restrict “dietary dietary supplements” to these merchandise which might be “meant for ingestion” within the gastrointestinal tract.
A product due to this fact can’t be bought as a “dietary complement” beneath California regulation except it’s meant for oral ingestion and absorption by way of the gastrointestinal tract.
A product that’s meant to impart vitamins into the physique by way of the pores and skin by way of a transdermal patch is regulated as a “drug” or “medical machine,” and isn’t a “dietary complement.”
It’s illegal within the State of California to promote unapproved medication that haven’t been proven protected and efficient by way of premarket approval by the FDA or the Division of Public Well being.
Defendants’ patch merchandise are misbranded beneath the regulation as a result of such merchandise are improperly and unlawfully labeled and bought as Dietary
Dietary supplements when, the truth is, the merchandise don’t meet the statutory definition of a dietary complement.Misbranded dietary dietary supplements and/or unapproved medication are illegal and can’t be bought legally.
There’s a number of vitamin patch MLM corporations round. If Youngevity’s declare holds up it could possibly be disastrous for that individual MLM area of interest.
On California, Youngevity brings it up as that’s the place they’ve filed their lawsuit. Youngevity’s company headquarters are in California. Innov8tive Diet and LaCore Enterprises are primarily based out of Texas.
Youngevity’s fifty-seven web page grievance particulars three counts at Innov8tive Diet and LaCore Enterprises;
- Laham Act false or deceptive promoting;
- unfair competitors – false promoting; and
- unfair competitors – illegal conduct.
Youngevity is looking for an injunction towards Innov8tive Diet and LaCore Enterprises, as effectively an financial damages.
This consists of any and all revenue derived from the sale of Innov8tive Diet’s patches, in addition to a 300% penalty on any damages awarded.
I’ve added “Youngevity Worldwide Inc. v. Innov8tive Diet, Inc. et al” to BehindMLM’s case calendar. Keep tuned for updates as we proceed to trace the case.
