Dallas Marketers of Laundry Detergent Substitute Charged with Making False and Unsubstantiated Claims Agree to Settlement with FTC and Six States

OneSource Worldwide Network, Inc., operating in Dallas, Texas, and its president, James Fobair, have settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they made false and unsubstantiated advertising claims for a laundry detergent substitute they sold. According to the FTC's complaint, OneSource and Fobair falsely touted their product, "The EarthSmart Laundry CD," as an effective substitute for laundry detergents that not only cleans laundry but does so without polluting the earth's waterways. The proposed settlement would prohibit OneSource and Fobair from claiming that the Laundry CD or any similar product cleans as well as conventional laundry detergent and would require them to pay $50,000 in disgorgement. These funds are to be divided equally among the FTC and six states that participated in this action: Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada and Texas.

According to the FTC's complaint detailing the charges, the defendants manufactured, marketed, and distributed The EarthSmart Laundry CD -- a plastic disc filled with allegedly "structured water"-- that could be used in washing machines instead of conventional laundry detergents. The product sold for approximately $80. The defendants advertised on the Internet, in promotional materials, and in face-to-face solicitations. Fobair also develop a multilevel marketing structure that sold the products through a network of distributors.

The FTC alleged that the defendants falsely claimed that The Laundry CD cleans laundry as well as conventional laundry detergent; that The Laundry CD cleans clothes by changing the molecular structure of water; that The Laundry CD is recyclable; and that scientific evidence proves that the product works. The complaint also alleged that the defendants did not have adequate substantiation for the claims they made about the product's environmental attributes or the product's ability to replace fabric softeners. In addition, according to the complaint, testimonials that appeared to reflect the typical or ordinary experience of users of the product were misleading because the testimonialists' experience was not typical.

The proposed settlement, which requires the court's approval to become binding, in addition to prohibiting the defendants from making the efficacy claims alleged in the complaint about The Laundry CD or any substantially similar product, would require the defendants to have substantiation for claims about any product's comparative or absolute efficacy, benefits, mechanism of action, or performance; its ability to soften fabrics; or its recyclability. The settlement also would prohibit the defendants from misrepresenting the results of any tests, studies or research and would prohibit them from assisting others in performing the activities prohibited by the order.

Moreover, the proposed settlement would bar the misleading use of testimonials and would require any atypical testimonial to be accompanied by a disclosure that the result is not typical or a statement as to what the generally expected result is for the product at issue. The proposed settlement also would prohibit the defendants from distributing their consumer information to others. Defendants OneSource and Fobair have agreed to jointly pay $50,000, with an avalanche clause in the amount of $7.5 million, if the financial information disclosure given to the FTC is found to be false.