Kevin Trudeau Banned from Infomercials
regulatory notice · 2004
LINK
SUMMARY
The FTC's own press release announcing its September 2004 settlement with Kevin Trudeau. Fetched directly (2026-07-10). States that Trudeau agreed to pay $2 million and to a broad ban on appearing in, producing, or disseminating infomercials advertising any product, service, or program, and on making health or disease-benefit claims in any advertising medium, to settle charges that he falsely claimed a coral calcium product (Coral Calcium Supreme) could cure cancer and other serious diseases and that an adhesive called Biotape could permanently cure or relieve severe pain. States the infomercial claims verbatim: Coral Calcium Supreme "provided the same amount of bioavailable calcium as two gallons of milk," was "absorbed into the body faster than ordinary calcium," and "could cure cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, lupus, and other illnesses"; Biotape "provided permanent relief from severe pain, including debilitating back pain, and pain from arthritis, sciatica, and migraines." Records that the FTC's June 2003 complaint (N.D. Ill.) alleged the coral calcium claims were false and unsubstantiated, that the Commission separately alleged Trudeau violated a 1998 FTC order by making these claims, that a July 2003 stipulated preliminary injunction barred the claims, and that the court found Trudeau in contempt of that injunction in mid-2004 for a direct-mail piece and an infomercial repeating them. Quotes Lydia Parnes, then Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection: "This ban is meant to shut down an infomercial empire that has misled American consumers for years." She added: "Other habitual false advertisers should take a lesson; mend your ways or face serious consequences."
NOTES
The Federal Trade Commission’s 7 September 2004 press release is the primary regulatory record of the settlement resolving its allegations about the health claims at the center of Kevin Trudeau’s infomercial business. It documents the claims the FTC charged as false and unsubstantiated, the $2 million settlement payment (paid as cash, a residential property in Ojai, California, and a luxury vehicle transferred to the Commission), the broad prospective ban on infomercials and health claims, and a $20 million “avalanche clause” that would apply if Trudeau misrepresented his finances. It is cited here for these facts and for its verbatim quotations, fetched directly from the FTC’s own site rather than from a search-tool summary.