Oregon AG Sues 5-Hour ENERGY® Makers Seeking Information

Oregon Attorney General (AG) Ellen Rosenblum has reportedly filed an
action in state court against the companies that make and promote 5-hour
ENERGY®, a drink purportedly linked to adverse incidents including fatalities,
seeking to enforce her demand for information about the product. The
lawsuit against Innovation Ventures, Living Essentials and Microdose Sales,
filed in Multnomah County Court, apparently seeks enforcement of the AG’s
Civil Investigative Demand for information under the state’s Unlawful Trade
Practices Act (UTPA).

According to a news source, the AG says she has “reason to believe that
respondents have made misleading statements regarding 5-hour Energy
in three issue areas: (1) whether users experience ‘no crash’ when using
the product; (2) a ‘Doctors Recommend’ advertising campaign; and (3) the
product’s suitability for children, all potentially in violation of . . . the UTPA.”
She seeks an order requiring the respondents to respond to her demand with
unredacted documents, a request she alleges the defendants have “steadfastly
refused.”

5-hour ENERGY® reportedly submitted a petition before the AG filed the action, seeking to “set aside, abate or modify” the investigative demand and claiming that it has submitted some 60,000 pages of documents covering six years, as well as 1,900 pages in response to follow-up questions as part of a 33-state investigation into whether fraudulent health claims have been made for the product. In a statement, the companies said that they “have cooperated and worked collaboratively with officials taking part in the inquiry of 5-hour ENERGY® advertising, including producing all of the necessary information for in-depth scientific review of 5-hour ENERGY® products.” See Courthouse News Service and OregonLive, December 31, 2013; ABCNews. go.com, January 3, 2014.

Issue 509