DōTERRA: Health Claims And Harassment UPDATE
One year ago I exposed a zoom presentation put on by dōTERRA reps who were spreading misinformation with a covid protocol. This protocol consisted of dōTERRA products along with other unproven treatments such as ivermectin. To make things worse, these reps were also medical professionals utilizing their perceived authority to push a pseudo-science agenda that lead people away from scientific evidence and medical advice surrounding Covid-19.
After exposing the protocol, the reps proceeded with harassment of my social media accounts, and in my DMs. They sent their husbands to message me as well, threatening legal action in an attempt to intimidate me. This was followed by mass reporting of my Facebook page resulting in one failed strike which was later reinstated. They continued to report my post, resulting in a strike against my page for copyright infringement, even though the post fell under fair-use law, their presentation was not copyrighted and it displayed blatant illegal false health claims.
The strike put my Facebook page at risk of being unpublished for the last year and was one of the biggest factors for starting this website. Consumer advocacy is often thwarted on social media. When warning of science denialism social media bots will often flag our posts as misinformation for showing what reps are spreading, while simultaneously allowing the original misinformation to persist. The bots completely miss sarcasm and often miss criticism of the misinformation in the posts. If we call out reps or corporate by name, we run the risk of being flagged for bullying just in showcasing bullying and harassment by reps and corporate themselves. And that is why some of the first blogs I made on this site are covering this specific dōTERRA situation.
You can read the first two blogs here:
Luckily, I wasn’t alone in this fight and multiple other activists created content on this protocol via Youtube and TikTok. They tweeted regulatory agencies and consumer advocacy non-profit Truth in Advertising (TINA). Many people also reported the protocol to the FTC and FDA. Luckily, TINA picked up on this and reported on it, sending the information on to regulators.
Now to the good news. On Friday, January 27th, 2023 TINA reported an update to their article. The update informed the public that:
If you would like to read the civil court documents of the US v. Eliza Bacot you can find them here:
While I prefer to see legal and regulatory action taken against the companies themselves, rather than the reps, I foreshadowed this update when I warned in my first blog in this series stating:
“Legally speaking, the advertising activity of MLM representatives is a direct representation of the company itself and it is the company’s responsibility to monitor and regulate their representatives’ claims. So when claims that the company’s products can help prevent, treat, or cure an ailment are made, and that claim is not backed up by valid scientific evidence, and those claims are also not regulated by the company, the company can get in trouble. It also puts the representatives themselves at personal legal risk.”
And on that note, I do hope that regulatory agencies take further action against dōTERRA for allowing their reps to not only make this dangerous presentation but continuing to spread false health claims. This isn’t the first time they and their reps have been caught doing so. In 2014, the FDA sent a warning letter to dōTERRA because of rampant deceptive health claims made about their products treating, preventing, and/or curing a litany of ailments:
The FTC also warned them in April 2020, specifically about deceptively advertising their products to treat, prevent, and/or cure Covid-19:
How many times does a company have to be warned about the same issue before a deeper investigation takes place? This is the third major regulatory action taken against the company and its representatives in the 15 years of its existence, and far from the only lawsuit. At what point does the safety of consumers trump the rampant feral capitalism of multi-level marketing? It is only because of the grassroots anti-MLM movement and individual consumer reporters that we have seen any regulatory action at all.
The rate at which misinformation and science denialism spreads can not currently be contained by the slow and minimal regulatory process. Political payoffs further impede regulatory action. While red tape hampers and corruption runs amuck the most vulnerable in society inevitably suffer. World governments need to do better and protect their people against the egregious fraud of multi-level marketing. Should no further action be taken against dōTERRA, we the people must become deafening.
