Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop product claims 'deceptive,' watchdog group says
By Dianne de Guzman, SFGATE Updated 8:08 pm, Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Gwyneth Paltrow attends book signing at goop-in@Nordstrom at The Grove on June 8, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Goop has come under fire for a number of products the site sells, with a watchdog group criticizing various health claims in the site's product marketing. Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images For Goop
Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images For Goop
Gwyneth Paltrow-run lifestyle website Goop is being called out again for its wellness products, after a consumer watchdog group cited more than 50 instances in which the site offered "deceptive" health claims in marketing for its products.
The group has filed a complaint with the California Food Drug and Medical Device Task Force to look into Goop's marketing practices.
Truth in Advertising compiled a list of instances it felt Goop falsely claimed that its products (or third-party products) could "treat, cure, prevent, alleviate the symptoms" for a variety of health issues, from thyroid dysfunction and infertility to uterine prolapse and hormonal imbalance.
"These [Goop-endorsed products] include crystal harmonics for infertility, rose flower essence tincture for depression, black rose bar for psoriasis, wearable stickers for anxiety, and vitamin D3 for cancer," TINA.org wrote in a blog post on its site Tuesday.
"The problem is that the company does not possess the competent and reliable scientific evidence required by law to make such claims."
The group fired off a letter to Paltrow and the Goop group about its findings, asking on Aug. 11 that the company modify how its content, in what TINA.org labelled as "illegal health claims." The group gave Goop a deadline of Aug. 18 to make changes to the product descriptions, before they took its issues with the site to the California Food Drug and Medical Device Task Force.
At its preset deadline, the group felt that the changes Goop made were not enough and sent a letter to California regulators.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, a Goop representative said that "while we believe that TINA's description of our interactions is misleading and their claims unsubstantiated and unfounded, we will continue to evaluate our products and our content and make those improvements that we believe are reasonable and necessary in the interests of our community of users."
The representative went on to say that the company felt it "responded promptly and in good faith to the initial outreach from representatives of TINA and hoped to engage with them to address their concerns. Unfortunately, they provided limited information and made threats under arbitrary deadlines which were not reasonable under the circumstances."
Paltrow and Goop's health claims have come under fire for various products over the past few years, since its jump from a beauty newsletter to selling wellness products. Goop made past headlines for promoting $120 Body Vibes stickers that were allegedly made with "the same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line space suits," saying the stickers would "rebalance the energy frequency in our bodies." (NASA, in turn, refuted those claims, and a former chief scientist at NASA was quoted as saying, "Wow. What a load of B.S. this is.")
Goop was also criticized for selling jade eggs, claiming that inserting the egg-shaped stones into a woman's vagina would balance hormones and improve the user's sex life. That information was disputed by San Francisco obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Jennifer Gunter, who said that using the jade egg as directed could lead to bacterial vaginosis or potentially deadly toxic shock syndrome.
The site also drew recent comparisons to radio show host Alex Jones's InfoWars and the two sites' shared love for selling wellness items with questionable health claims.
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