Two consumers have filed a class-action lawsuit against a California CBD company for selling unapproved drugs, dietary supplements and foods, the latest in a series of suits that have hit the CBD industry since the Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to 15 companies last month.
The plaintiffs said in their suit against Koi CBD that they would have not have bought the products or paid as much for them if they had known how they were misbranded and falsely advertised, alleging violations of a host of state and federal laws, including the California and U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetic statutes.
Koi CBD was one of the 15 companies to recently receive letters from FDA for their marketing of CBD.
One example cited in the suit involves Koi CBD gummies, which “appear to be promoted as conventional human food” and were touted on the label as “delicious, edible human snacks.” But the lawsuit notes it is illegal “to introduce or deliver for introduction into interstate commerce any food to which has been added a drug.”
A lawyer for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable told Natural Products Insider that the industry does not believe the lawsuits have merit, but they may have a salutary effect. The legal action "does emphasize how important it is for the FDA to get back together to formally recognize and regulate CBD as a … dietary supplement and food additive, and that if the FDA doesn’t, it’s even more important for the Congress to act to force the FDA to get its processes started,” Jonathan Miller told the publication.
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