## Facts

- Airborne Health, Inc. manufactured and sold Airborne-branded dietary supplement products.
- Airborne’s advertising conveyed that its products could provide health benefits and could prevent colds or reduce cold symptoms.
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Airborne and related defendants in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), including 15 U.S.C. §§ 45(a) and 52.
- The FTC alleged that Airborne’s efficacy claims were false or deceptive because they were based on unreliable scientific evidence and misinterpretations of tests and studies.
- The FTC alleged Airborne also misrepresented the nature, quality, and meaning of scientific support for the claimed benefits.
- Airborne did not admit or deny liability.
- The parties negotiated a settlement and asked the district court to enter a stipulated final judgment and order providing injunctive and other equitable relief.
- The stipulated order was coordinated with consumer-refund funding that, according to the FTC’s public statements, was satisfied through additional payment into a related private class-action settlement fund, bringing the combined fund to $30 million.
- The district court entered the stipulated final judgment and order, ending the case.

## Issues

1. Whether advertising that a dietary supplement can prevent colds or reduce cold symptoms violates the FTCA when the claims are not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence and are framed as supported by tests or studies.
2. Whether a federal district court may enter a stipulated permanent injunction and equitable monetary relief resolving FTC claims for deceptive advertising without an admission of liability by the defendants.

## Decision

- The court entered the parties’ stipulated final judgment and order for injunctive and other equitable relief.
- The order imposed a permanent injunction restricting future health-benefit and cold-related efficacy representations unless supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence at the time the claims are made.
- The order prohibited misrepresentations about the existence, contents, validity, or results of tests, studies, or research relating to covered product claims.
- The order included monetary relief structured to provide consumer refunds, which the FTC publicly described as being satisfied by adding funds to a related private class-action settlement, for a combined $30 million refund pool.
- Defendants did not admit or deny the FTC’s allegations but became bound by the injunctive terms and related requirements in the final order.

## Legal Principles

- Under the FTCA, advertisers must have adequate substantiation for objective product claims, including health and disease-related efficacy claims for dietary supplements.
- Claims that convey scientific validation (such as representations about tests or studies) can be deceptive if the cited testing does not reliably support the claimed results or if the advertising misstates what the evidence shows.
- A stipulated final judgment in an FTC enforcement action may impose forward-looking limits on advertising claims and may include equitable monetary relief for consumer redress.
- A consent judgment entered by a federal court functions as an enforceable injunction even when defendants neither admit nor deny liability.

## Conclusion

In Federal Trade Commission v. Airborne Health, Inc., CV08-05300 (2008), the FTC challenged Airborne’s cold-related efficacy advertising as deceptive and inadequately supported by reliable science; the case ended when the district court entered a stipulated final judgment and order imposing a permanent injunction limiting future claims without competent and reliable scientific evidence and providing monetary relief tied to a consumer refund fund described by the FTC as totaling $30 million when combined with a related class-action settlement.
