On December 3, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it has given final approval to an order against a telemedicine company and its principals, requiring them to stop the alleged deceptive advertising of weight-loss programs and to stop the alleged use of deceptive and unfair billing and cancellation practices.
In its July 2025 complaint, the FTC alleged that the company and certain individuals associated therewith “exploited skyrocketing interest in prescription glucagon-like peptide 1 agonist (GLP-1) weight-loss drugs like and Ozempic.” FTC lawyers also alleged they sold weight-loss programs with undisclosed costs and membership commitments, made unsubstantiated claims about the weight loss achieved by their clients, used fake testimonials, and unfairly distorted consumer reviews.
According to the FTC, the firm and its principals also allegedly failed to process cancellation and refund requests in a timely manner and failed to obtain express informed consent before charging consumers or making recurring debits, according to the complaint.
The final order requires the foregoing parties to pay $150,000, which is expected to be used to provide refunds to consumers.
The final order also:
- prohibits them from misrepresenting the cost of telehealth services;
- requires competent and reliable evidence to support claims about the average or typical results users will achieve;
- prohibits misrepresentations that reviews are truthful or from real consumers, and requires disclosure of any unexpected material connection with endorsers or reviewers;
- prohibits manipulation of reviews;
- requires them to obtain informed consent before billing consumers and authorization to use any electronic fund transfer; and
- requires them to clearly disclose important terms relating to refunds or cancellations before consumers are asked to pay, provide a simple way for consumers to request cancellations or refunds, and to promptly honor any cancellation or refund requests that comply with policies that were in effect at the time of purchase.
