Two nonprofits, the Alliance for Natural Health - USA, and
TechFreedom, released a report last week alleging that the Federal
Trade Commission broke free speech laws when in January 2013, it
barred POM Wonderful from asserting that its pomegranate juice is
"effective in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or
prevention of any disease," including heart disease, prostate
cancer, and erectile dysfunction, unless the claim is supported by
two randomized, well-controlled, human clinical trials. In their
report, the nonprofits estimate that the two clinical trials
required by the FTC could cost up to $600 million each.
The POM order highlights the balancing act between requiring
substantiation to ensure a claim is truthful and not misleading to
consumers, and overly burdensome substantiation requirements that
suppress otherwise truthful speech. The nonprofits’
report criticizes the FTC’s ruling as falling into the latter
category by requiring an enormously
