False Advertising Claims
In a move that adds even more legal complexity, Vitamin Energy accuses 5-Hour Energy of employing misleading advertisements on television and social media. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that 5-Hour Energy promoted unsubstantiated claims about the strength and potency of its product, skewing consumer perception.
“Defendants have profited from this false advertising and consumer deception” according to the complaint.
by making sales that they would not otherwise have made. Defendants’ false advertising is illegal under Section 43 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125(a)(1)(B),” notes Vitamin Energy in its complaint.
False advertising suits have surfaced against 5-Hour Energy before. In 2017, a Washington judge ordered the company to pay $4.3 million in penalties and legal fees over alleged violations of a state consumer protection law. Though 5-Hour Energy denied wrongdoing in that case, the new lawsuit dredges up old concerns regarding how the brand markets its product.
