National Advertising Division (NAD) Update

NAD/NARB Filing Fees Increased as of Feb. 1, 2016

The filing fee for all appeals before the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) increased to $15,000 from $12,000. The fee can be adjusted/waived on showing of economic hardship, and consumers may file challenges free of charge. In addition, NAD filing fees were increased for National Partners of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, to $15,000 from $10,000, as well as for other challengers with gross annual revenue of less than $1 billion, to $20,000 from $15,000. View the decision.

Novartis Consumer Health, Inc., Case No. 5873 (Dec. 17, 2015)

NARB reviewed an NAD decision finding that Benefiber's "helps maintain regularity" claims lacked substantiation. Both NARB and NAD concluded that the claim conveyed to consumers that Benefiber provides a meaningful benefit with respect to regularity. NAD found that Novartis did not provide sufficient information to assess whether the studies it submitted