Anna Nicole Smith, TrimSpa sued over diet ads

updated 3:35 p.m. ET Feb. 7, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Anna Nicole Smith and the diet products company TrimSpa Inc. have been sued in a class-action lawsuit alleging their marketing of a weight loss pill is false or misleading.

Janet Luna and three people identified as her guardians were named in a lawsuit filed last Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging deceptive business practices and a violation of California's unfair competition law.

They are asking for unspecified damages, restitution and an injunction preventing Smith and New Jersey-based TrimSpa, maker of TrimSpa X32, from making claims that users of the pills can lose substantial amounts of weight.

Smith has endorsed TrimSpa and is a spokeswoman.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced TrimSpa would pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the company's weight-loss claims were unsubstantiated.

TrimSpa released a statement following the announcement saying it supported actions to clean up the weight loss industry, but disputed the federal agency's allegation that a handful of TrimSpa advertisements that ran in 2003 and 2004 had insufficient substantiation.

TrimSpa also disagreed with any inference that its X32 product has no scientific support.

A message left after hours with Joseph Farzam, an attorney for the plaintiff, was not immediately returned.

Ron Rale, Smith's lawyer, said his client had not seen the lawsuit and he could not immediately comment.

"This is news to us," he said, adding that "I'm sure to be speaking to her about it."

MORE FROM U.S. BUSINESS

U.S. business Section Front

Dell plans to sell computer factories — report Is Favre financial savior for the Jets? Study: Workers to pay more for health care Boeing’s workers postpone strike Gannett gains controlling CareerBuilder stake GMAC to close all retail outlets, lay off 5,000 Airlines seen losing $5.2 billion this year Newsweek: Are Americans really worse off? Coke offers $2.5 billion for China juice maker Gustav may trigger $10B in insurance claims U.S. business Section Front   Add U.S. business headlines to your news reader: