Orange County Register

Nutritional supplement company Vitalife Inc. will pay $1,025,000 in civil penalties and costs and provide refunds to customers after settling a consumer protection lawsuit that alleged false advertising, refusing refunds on unwanted products and failing to use required warning labels, Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced today.

Vitalife, based in Irvine, sells nutritional supplements and cosmetic products nationwide through mail orders and over the Internet. It also operates under the name Tabak’s Health Products.

The company did not admit fault or liability in the settlement. Vitalife attorney Jeff Lurner said the company sells nutritional products to more than two million customers, all of whom are valued, and chose to resolve its differences with the approximately 200 customers who filed complaints rather than to fight the claims. He added that the company cooperated fully with the government and is fully committed to ensuring its customers are fully satisfied.

Terms of the settlement include a requirement that Vitalife avoid making claims that products contain specific ingredients which are not actually present in the products and that it include warning information with all products, marketed to California residents, that contain specific lead levels.

An investigation by the District Attorney revealed that Vitalife was selling nutritional supplements containing lead without warning labels. The California Health and Safety Code requires all products containing more than .5 micrograms of ingestible lead be marked with warning labels. Laboratory tests revealed that certain lots of at least two Vitalife products, Thermaway and Slimtrac, contained over twice the .5 microgram threshold lead level, the District Attorney’s Office stated. Thermaway and Slimtrac are marketed by Vitalife as weight-loss supplements.

Lurner said the company was under the impression that the lead was within legal limits without need of a label based on information provided by its manufacturers.

Vitalife faced civil action in 2001, when the District Attorney’s Office obtained an injunction against the company that prohibited it from delaying refunds to customers and making false or misleading advertising claims. It also required that Vitalife remove consumers from their mailing lists if the consumer so requested.

Since the 2001 injunction, more than 200 complaints were filed with the Better Business Bureau by customers complaining that Vitalife failed to provide them with refunds when requested; and Vitalife sent automatic shipments of products to customers who had not ordered the products, charging the customer for the unwanted goods, according to the District Attorney.

Vitalife has agreed to pay full restitution to consumers who filed complaints with Vitalife, the Better Business Bureau or the District Attorney between June 1, 2001 and March 31, 2008. As a condition of the settlement, Vitalife must send letters to all past and currents customers who filed complaints offering the customer the opportunity to request a refund. Vitalife must show proof to the District Attorney that they sent the mailing and provided refunds on all verified claims.

Deputy District Attorney Tracy Hughes of the Consumer Protection Unit prosecuted the case.

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