A law professor’s new study finds that advertisers may be using patent and FDA approval claims to make their products seem more legitimate than they really are. Veuer’s Matt Hoffman reports.
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00:00Being patented or FDA-approved doesn't mean that a product is risk-free.
00:05But the author of a new study worries that that's what many advertisers want you to think.
00:09Michael Mattioli is a professor at Indiana University Moorer School of Law.
00:13In a new study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, he claims to have analyzed hundreds of ads
00:18which use those phrases, patented and FDA-approved.
00:21Mattioli found that those claims were often used deceptively to indicate safety or effectiveness,
00:26especially among products like cosmetics and insect sprays, which consumers worry could be harmful.
00:31As Mattioli points out, patented simply means that you have ownership of a product,
00:36while FDA-approved means that the Food and Drug Administration found that the product's potential benefits
00:41outweigh its potential risks among intended users, not that there are no risks.
00:46Mattioli recommends that such language be legally presumed to be misleading,
00:50putting the burden of proof on the advertiser to demonstrate that it's not,
00:54and that the Federal Trade Commission start an initiative to investigate ads that use this language in a misleading way.
01:01For now, if you see patented or FDA-approved on a label,
01:04don't assume that means you've got nothing to worry about.