Hims Seeks Dismissal of FTC Suit Over User Data, Subscriptions
Hims & Hers Health Inc. asked a California federal judge to throw out a U.S. Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging the company misled consumers about its products, charged them for unwanted subscriptions and improperly shared private health information with advertisers.
In a court filing Thursday, Hims said its privacy policy explicitly discloses that client information might be shared with advertisers. The company also claimed the FTC misapplied the federal law related to recurring online charges. Hims said its subscriptions are limited to single-year contracts paid for on a monthly basis, and consumers must affirmatively renew beyond that.
The FTC “cannot manufacture deception by ignoring what H&H told consumers, or create liability by rewriting” federal law, the company said in its filing.
Hims has about 2.6 million subscribers paying a monthly fee for access to doctors able to prescribe medications for common conditions like obesity, hair loss and erectile dysfunction. The FTC, Utah and Los Angeles County sued in July, alleging the company didn’t clearly disclose to consumers that they were purchasing a subscription and made it too difficult to cancel.
The FTC argued that Hims violated a 2010 federal law that applies to online subscriptions, which requires companies to clearly and conspicuously disclose all material terms before charging consumers on an ongoing basis. The FTC has sued a number of companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. under that same law for allegedly making their cancellation process too difficult for consumers. Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to resolve the FTC’s case, while the legal fight with Uber is ongoing.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco has scheduled a Jan. 7 hearing on Hims’ bid to throw out the case.
The case is FTC v Hims & Hers Health, 26-cv-7871, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
Top photo: The Hims logo on a smartphone in New York. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg.