Sonoma County District Attorney Settles Civil Lawsuit Against Dietary Supplement Company Balance of Nature

District Attorney Carla Rodriguez announced today that her office as part of the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device Task Force settled a consumer protection action against Evig, LLC doing business as Balance of Nature. The case was filed in Napa Superior Court by the District Attorney’s offices of Sonoma, Alameda, Marin, Monterey, Napa Orange, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, and Solano Counties, which together comprise the task force.

Balance of Nature sells dietary supplements, which purport to be fruits and vegetables that are freeze-dried, powdered, and placed in a capsule. The company engaged in extensive radio, television, and internet advertising in California. The complaint alleged that Balance of Nature made representations regarding the effectiveness and attributes of its products that were not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence. For example, Balance of Nature made the following claims, which the District Attorneys alleged lacked scientific support:

• The company claimed that one serving of its Fruits product, which weighs approximately 2 grams, contained the “nutritional equivalent of over 5 servings of fruits per dose.”
• “When you take the recommended 3 capsule dosage of Balance of Nature Fruit and Veggies, your body receives as much nutrition as it would from eating more than 10 servings of a salad made with 31 different fruits and vegetables.”
• “Can the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables fit into just 6 capsules? Yes!”

The complaint also alleged that Balance of Nature made claims that its products could prevent, treat, mitigate, or cure serious disease conditions, including diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, fibromyalgia, and cancer. The company went so far as to recommend that customers take 12 capsules each of its Fruits and Veggies supplements if they had been “diagnosed with life threatening illness[.]” Balance of Nature also used customer testimonials to make scientifically unsupported claims that the products could treat or cure disease conditions such as lupus, ulcers, gout, congestive heart failure, Hepatitis C, and multiple sclerosis.

The complaint further alleged that Balance of Nature enrolled customers into an automatically renewing subscription program, and charged them a recurring monthly fee, without clearly disclosing the terms of the program, giving customers an adequate acknowledgement of their enrollment in the program, or allowing customers to cancel online, all in violation of California’s Automatic Renewal Law.

As part of the settlement, Balance of Nature agreed to enter into a judgment, which includes a monetary payment of $1.1 million dollars. Under the terms of the judgment, Balance of Nature must pay $250,000 in customer restitution. Any California resident who purchased a Balance of Nature product in the past 6 years will receive a notice on how to claim a refund. Balance of Nature will also pay $850,000 in civil penalties and investigative costs. Further, the judgment prohibits Balance of Nature from engaging in any of the unlawful conduct described in the complaint. Balance of Nature did not admit liability.

District Attorney Carla Rodriguez stated, “The California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task force does important work throughout the state to protect consumers from false and misleading advertising in the area of dietary supplements and medical devices and Sonoma County is proud to be a part of this task force.”