FTC permanently stops fake news sites selling acai weight-loss products

As part of a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, six online marketers will permanently halt their allegedly deceptive practice of using fake news websites to sell acai berry supplements and other weight-loss products.

The proposed settlements requires the defendants make clear when commercial messages are advertisements as opposed to journalism, and bars them from further deceptive claims about health-related products, such as the acai berry weight-loss supplements and colon cleansers that they marketed.

Among other stipulations of the settlement, the six online marketers are also barred from making deceptive claims about other products, such as the work-at-home schemes or penny auctions promoted by many of them.

The settlements also requires the defendants pay about $500,000 collectively, because their advertisements violated federal law.

We've said before that the claims of acai berry juice might be just hype, and warned that although the berries may be high in antioxidants, there is little evidence that they have special weight-loss or other such powers that you can often touted in ads on the Internet.

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FTC Permanently Stops Six Operators from Using Fake News Sites that Allegedly Deceived Consumers about Acai Berry Weight-Loss Products [FTC]

—Maggie Shader