EUGENE, Ore. (Legal Newsline) — Vitamin Shoppe Inc. will pay $545,000 and stop selling certain dietary supplements in Oregon stores after the company was accused of selling products containing unsafe or unlawful ingredients, state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said.
Vitamin Shoppe purportedly sold products containing DMAA, an amphetamine-like ingredient, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined the ingredient was unsafe or illegal. Rosenblum’s office also alleged that Vitamin Shoppe sold products in Oregon that contained picamillon, an ingredient that is illegal but is often used in other countries as a drug to treat psychiatric disorders.
Under the terms of the settlement, which was announced March 16, Vitamin Shoppe is banned from selling any dietary supplement that the FDA has said contains unsafe or illegal ingredients.
“The nutritional supplements that Vitamin Shoppe was selling have the potential to do a lot of harm," Rosenblum said. "Continuing to sell a purported dietary supplement after the FDA warned it was unsafe or unlawful is unacceptable.”
This is the first settlement of its kind that holds a retailer financially liable for selling products made by a third party that were known to be unsafe or unlawful, the attorney general said.