Commission warns pharmacists about weight loss products
Published06 Apr 1997
As part of an investigation focusing on weight loss products, the Commerce Commission has warned pharmacists that they risk breaching the Fair Trading Act if they promote weight loss products that do not work.
The Act prohibits misleading conduct in relation to goods and false representations that goods have any performance characteristics, uses or benefits. Anyone can take legal action under the Act to a court or the Disputes Tribunal if they believe a pharmacist has broken the law.
Commission Chairman Dr Alan Bollard said that Commission staff have visited pharmacies and have just written to every pharmacy in the country explaining how the Act applies to them.
Pharmacists, like all other retailers, are responsible for claims made in their shops. That includes claims made on labels, posters, point of sale material, brochures and other material provided by manufacturers and distributors.
"Even if they make no claims themselves, the act of offering goods for sale in packaging that includes false or misleading claims puts pharmacists at risk of breaching the Act," Dr Bollard said.
"Furthermore, some pharmacists that we spoke to quite openly said they thought that some of the weight loss products they sold did not work.
"And yet pharmacists promote themselves as the health professionals you see most often. People will go to them and ask for professional health advice. Selling weight loss products through a pharmacy gives the products more credibility."
Pharmacists have been advised to ensure that they do not offer for sale weight loss or diet products unless there is scientific evidence from a recognised organisation that the product has been proven to work.
Problems the Commission has encountered include products endorsed by people who call themselves doctors but have no medical qualifications, claims supported by studies from research institutions that do not exist and claims that using a product will cause weight loss without needing to change diet or exercise.
The Commission's investigation is continuing and will also include health shops.
"Our approach is a mixture of education and enforcement," Dr Bollard said. "We are providing information but we are also considering prosecutions involving some products."
For legal reasons, the products will not be named until court action is filed.
The Commission's action on weight loss products comes from its on-going monitoring of advertising. Weight loss products are heavily promoted.
In addition, weight loss is a highly emotive issue - many people are almost desperate to lose weight - and false or misleading promotions can easily take advantage of that.
