Acai Berry Lawsuit - What Is It About?
Acai Berry has recently made news once again. However this time it wasn’t about the health benefits of acai but rather a lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General against some of the acai berry companies. Along with AG, Oprah and dr. Oz’s companies had also filed suits. The reason for these lawsuits is deceptive marketing used by merchants and some affiliates. There are two main misdoings when it comes to deceptive advertisement.
One is the “as seen on ” claims, which is the reason why Oprah’s and dr. Oz’s companies are filing suits. Names like Oprah have a huge following, and as such an “as seen on Oprah” inspired confidence in many people. However one cannot use such line in advertising unless one’s product was indeed featured on Oprah’s show, and even then there are some restrictions when it comes to wording (ie. seen vs endorsed.) And while Acai Berry has indeed been featured on Oprah’s Show, no specific name brand was featured nor endorsed. As such the companies that put “as see on ..” are engaging in a deceptive advertisement because they make it seem like their product was featured on those channels or shows, where as in reality it was not.
The other reason for the lawsuits is that some of the acai berry companies would make it very hard if not impossible to cancel a trial offer. Now, trial offers are not to blame for this, trial offers are actually great because you can try a product for a lower price first. The problem is with the unethical companies that would make it impossible to cancel one’s order, billing people’s credit cards every months until the card was canceled. And that along with the deceptive marketing by some companies is the reason for the suits and the latest acai berry appearance on TV and news.
With the above said, acai berry is still a decent weight loss supplement and many people believe it works quite well. You just have to be careful when you order it online. But just a few quick steps can prevent most of the potential problems. You could for example call a company and see if you can get through to them and how easy it would be to cancel your order before you place one. This way you can make sure that you are ordering from a legit company that will allow you to cancel order thus avoiding the very frustrating situation of getting billed month after month until you cancel your credit card.
You should also read this post about how to avoid acai berry scams when ordering a trial offer.