JACKSONVILLE, Fla.— FTC and the Florida Attorney General filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, charging the Alcoholism Cure Corp. with deceptive business practices. The agency alleges the company used deceptive marketing claims promoting its dietary supplements as a cure for alcoholism, signed up consumers and billed unauthorized charges up to thousands of dollars, and threatened to reveals the consumers’ drinking problems if they canceled their memberships.
The company marketed its programs online since at least 2005, offering monthly subscriptions such as the Heavy Drinker program ($59.96 for the first month and $179.96 per month thereafter) or the Very Heavy Drinker program ($99.96 for the first month and $269.96 per month thereafter). Sales totaled at least $693,000 between 2005 and 2009, according to the complaint. Marketing claims included the program was “scientifically proven to cure alcoholism” and the supplements such as vitamin C, St. John’s wort and niacin were part of the “best technology to end alcohol abuse permanently.”
When consumers tried to cancel, the company referred them to an indecipherable terms-and-conditions page and refused to cancel their memberships unless they submitted “Proofs of Continued Drinking,” including hair and blood samples, liquor receipts, notarized statements from friends and doctors, and laboratory test results.
