Children's Vitamins Marketers Banned From Making Deceptive Health Claims

Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission  (FTC), major marketers of children's vitamins must stop making false and unproven claims that their supplements promote healthy brain and eye development in kids.

The companies have agreed to pay $2.1 million in refunds to consumers who purchased certain multivitamins in their Disney and Marvel Heroes line.

Deceptive claims

The FTC charged NBTY, Inc. and two subsidiaries, NatureSmart LLC and Rexall Sundown, Inc., with making deceptive claims about the amount of DHA -- an Omega-3 fatty acid -- used in their line of Disney- and Marvel Heroes-licensed children's multivitamin gummies and tablets.

The companies also made unsupported claims that a daily serving of the products promotes healthy brain and eye development in children, according to the FTC administrative complaint.

The come-on

Sold by major retailers such as CVS Pharmacy, Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, Kroger, Kmart, Meijer and Rite Aid -- as well as online -- the multivitamins featured characters such as the Disney Princesses, Winnie the Pooh, Finding Nemo and Spider-Man.

Product packaging and print ads promoting the vitamins had bold graphics highlighting that the products contained DHA, but in reality, the products allegedly had only a trace amount of DHA.

While the vitamins' packaging touted the purported health benefits of 100 milligrams of DHA, a daily serving of the Disney and Marvel multivitamins for children ages four years and older contained only one thousandth of that amount (0.1 mg or 100 mcg), according to the FTC's complaint.

The FTC alleged that the packaging and ads for the Disney and Marvel multivitamins misrepresented that they contained a significant amount of DHA, and that NBTY, NatureSmart, and Rexall Sundown made unsubstantiated claims that the amount of DHA provided by the multivitamins promotes healthy brain and eye development in children.

Making it right

The settlement:

• bars NBTY, NatureSmart and Rexall Sundown from misrepresenting the amount of any ingredient contained in any product.
• bars them from misrepresenting that any ingredient, including DHA, promotes brain or eye health or provides any other health benefit, unless the claim is true and backed by competent and reliable scientific evidence.
• specifies that any violations could subject the NBTY, NatureSmart and Rexall Sundown to civil penalties.

The FTC will administer a refund program to distribute the $2.1 million to purchasers of the Disney and Marvel multivitamins and reach out to affected consumers in the coming months.