Alabama AG announces order against sports performance company

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Legal Newsline) - Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange announced a temporary restraining order Thursday against a Birmingham-area sports performance company for allegedly selling products with unsupported health claims.

Strange filed a lawsuit against SWATS Edge Performance Chips LLC and its principals, Mitchell Ross and Christopher Key, alleging at least 264 counts of violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. SWATS is a Wisconsin company doing business in Fultondale that allegedly sells products using unsupported health and athletic claims.

Strange alleges that Ross and Key have no advanced medical or scientific background and will say and sell anything under the premise of increasing athletic performance. SWATS allegedly advertises that its products boost the immune system, reduce cancer risk, stimulate muscle growth and reduce the long-term effects of concussive trauma to the brain, among other claims. Strange alleges that SWATS's products like its cooling concussion cap and pain management chips pose a threat of immediate and irreparable injury.

"Like SWATS's other products, the chips are long on claims and short on science," Strange said. "Like the concussion cap and the sprays and tabs, the various chip products are marketed and sold under specific panacean-like promises that imply the science is there and the only variable on the results is your money. But the reality, which doubles as SWATS's modus operandi, is that SWATS is waiting for science to prove its claims aren't real, not the other way around."

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Caryl Privett granted a request from Strange to issue a temporary restraining order against the defendants to stop them from selling their products and to appoint a receiver and take necessary steps to preserve the defendants' assets. A hearing for a preliminary injunction is set for Sept. 19.