ITC impose £60,000 fine on Shop America

The ITC have imposed a financial penalty of £60,000 on the television shopping channel, Shop America, for a number of breaches of the ITC's Advertising Code.
Shop America began broadcasting in 2000. There have been seven breaches of the ITC Advertising Code since this time, all relating to misleading advertisements.
The latest breaches were in relation to misleading claims in advertisements for a number of health-related products and for a sports product:
Bob Barefoot's Coral Calcium Supreme - the advertisement for this calcium supplement claimed that it could help reverse cancer and other serious diseases and could benefit everyone, including babies. This is in breach of rules 8.2.3 and 8.3.5 of the ITC Code (making medicinal claims for a product without a marketing authorisation and suggesting that the supplement was necessary to augment an average person's diet, enhancing normal health, rather than indicating which particular groups could benefit). The Commission regarded this as a particularly serious compliance failure.
Fresh Start - a testimonial from an obese person was used to support the efficacy of the diets, which is in breach of rule 8.4.5. of the Code. Testimonials or case histories referring to subjects who were, or appeared to be, obese before using a product are not permitted. The advertisement referred to predicted amounts of weight loss which did not conform to established good dietary practice (a breach of rule 8.4.3) and made claims about the efficacy of the products which could not be substantiated (a breach of rule 8.4.2). The price given for the product was also misleading under rule 5.3.1.
The name of a product, Dalton McCrary's How To Hit The Ball As Straight As You Can Point Guaranteed, was in itself an unsubstantiated claim, and in breach of section 5.2.1 of the Code. Such a guarantee for the efficacy of the product was not substantiated. There was also superimposed text ,which was in breach of rule 5.4.2, which requires such text to be clear and legible. References were also made to unsubstantiated prices at which the product had previously been sold and the on-screen price incorrectly labelled (breach of rule 5.3.1).
The financial penalty reflects the Commission's view that the breaches, taken together, demonstrated that the licensee had shown very serious disregard for the Code, and especially for rules which were designed to protect the very vulnerable (in this case, the seriously ill and overweight). The Commission was concerned that such behaviour was bringing the teleshopping industry into disrepute.
(GB)