High-profile TV marketer Kevin Trudeau is in trouble again.
The Federal Trade Commission went to court last week, charging that infomercials done by Trudeau misrepresented the contents of his best-selling book, “The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You to Know About.”
The FTC wants Trudeau held in contempt for violating a 2004 injunction banning him from using infomercials to sell any product. That order exempted books, but it required that Trudeau not misrepresent their content.
Books are covered by the First Amendment, and advertising for them is protected by the so-called mirror-image doctrine. The latter states that the advertiser is free of liability if the ad accurately reflects what is in the book.
However, in this case, the FTC charges that Trudeau misstated the nature of the work.
He claimed in an infomercial that the program outlined in the book is “easy to do, you can do it at home,” according to the FTC.
He added: “I can attest, it was the easiest, simplest, most effective ting I’ve ever done. And when you’re done with the protocol, eat whatever you want and you don’t gain the weight back.”
But the program involves a “complex, grueling plan that requires severe dieting, daily injection of a prescription drug that consumers cannot easily get, and lifelong dietary restrictions,” according to the FTC.
The FTC sued Trudeau over his infomercials for the first time in 1998, charging that he made false claims for hair growth, memory and weight loss products.
Five years later, it charged him with making false claims for his Carol Calcium Supreme and Biotape products. Trudeau settled that case in 2004, paying $2 million and agreeing to the infomercial ban.
The book has hit several bestseller lists, including that of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, according to press reports.
The contempt action is on file with the U.S. district court for the Northern District of Illinois.
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