On Monday 2nd May, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear POM Wonderful L.L.C.’s petition concerning a 2013 Federal Trade Commission ruling that found some of the company’s health-related claims to be misleading. As a result, the F.T.C.’s cease and desist order that was issued in January 2013 will stand.
The move ends a nearly six-year battle launched by the company, part of the agricultural empire of Beverly Hills power couple Lynda and Stewart Resnick, against federal regulators, who questioned the science behind claims that drinking pomegranate juice could "cheat death" by preventing heart disease and prostate cancer.
The lower-court rulings in the case have been cited regularly in cases that attempt to balance the limits of the 1st Amendment's protection of commercial speech with regulatory responsibilities to protect consumers from misleading advertising claims.
An administrative law judge in 2012 ruled that there was insufficient scientific evidence to back 19 of the company's implied claims that drinking its pomegranate juice could treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction.
Studies funded by Pom Wonderful for a reported $35 million were insufficient in part because they did not include at least two human trials with control groups, the judge said in upholding a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission.
The Resnicks appealed, saying the FTC misinterpreted the ads, made the substantiation requirements too stringent and restricted their 1st Amendment rights to tell consumers about potential health benefits of pomegranates.
Last year, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the company's arguments, although it scaled back one of the agency's standards for proof to just one randomized clinically controlled human trial.
Monday's decision was the second time Pom Wonderful appealed to the nation's highest court. In 2014, the court ruled that it could sue the Coca-Cola Co. over a competing pomegranate drink, marketed under the Minute Maid brand, that was more than 99% apple and grape juice.
A California jury in March rejected Pom Wonderful's claims of misleading labeling. Minute Maid no longer makes the drink.
Sources: latimes.com, foodbusinessnews.net