U.S. advocacy group accuses Paltrow's Goop of 'deceptive' marketing

[August 26, 2017]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. consumer advocacy group said that actress Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop lifestyle business makes deceptive claims about some of its products, and it has asked the California Food Drug and Medical Device Task Force to open an investigation.

Truth in Advertising (TINA), in a posting on its website, said it sent a letter this week to the California Food Drug and Medical Device Task Force saying it had found more than 50 instances in which Goop gave "unsubstantiated, and therefore deceptive, health and disease-treatment claims to market many of its products."

The group said Goop claims "either expressly or implicitly, that its products (or those it promotes) can treat, cure, prevent, alleviate the symptoms of, or reduce the risk of developing a number of ailments. These include crystal harmonics for infertility, rose flower essence tincture for depression, black rose bar for psoriasis, wearable stickers for anxiety, and vitamin D3 for cancer."

Goop, which runs an online shopping site, said in a statement on Friday that it believed the group's claims were "unsubstantiated and unfounded" but that it was "receptive to feedback and consistently seek to improve the quality of the products and information."

The California Task Force did not return calls for comment on Friday.

Paltrow, 44, founded Goop in 2008 as a blog for lifestyle and wellness tips, and it evolved into an online retail business. Paltrow has developed a committed clientele and also runs wellness summits called "In Goop Health."

"We responded promptly and in good faith to the initial outreach from representatives of TINA and hoped to engage with them to address their concerns," Goop said. "Unfortunately, they provided limited information and made threats under arbitrary deadlines which were not reasonable under the circumstances,"

Truth in Advertising said it took action after it contacted Goop to amend product descriptions but the website made what TINA called limited changes.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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