Snore Formula Settles Federal Charges

April 15, 2003

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Snore Formula, Inc. and a distributor have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they failed to have scientific substantiation for the claims made for "Dr. Harris' Original Snore Formula" tablets.

Snore Formula is an herbal supplement purported to cure snoring.

The Commission's complaint charges that the company made unsubstantiated claims about the tablets' efficacy in preventing sleep apnea and significantly reducing snoring in adult and child users.

The consent agreement requires that the company have competent and reliable scientific evidence to substantiate representations that Snore Formula or any other food, drug, device, service, or dietary supplement prevents, treats, eliminates, or reduces snoring and sleep apnea in both adult and child users.

The FTC charges Ronald General and Dennis H. Harris, M.D., and their company, Snore Formula, Inc., with violating the FTC Act by failing to possess evidence substantiating their claims for Snore Formula. The FTC also charged Snore Formula distributor Gerald L. "Jerry" Harris, owner of the SnoreFormula.com Web site.

According to the FTC's complaint, the respondents failed to have a reasonable basis for claims they made about their product's efficacy in: preventing sleep apnea in adult and child users who would otherwise develop sleep apnea; treating the "early stages" of sleep apnea; and eliminating, preventing, or significantly reducing snoring.

The complaint alleges that the respondents failed to disclose the importance of seeing a physician for people who have symptoms of sleep apnea because the condition may be fatal. The complaint further alleges that the respondents falsely claimed that scientific testing demonstrates that the tablets eliminate, prevent, or significantly reduce snoring in 86 percent of users.

In addition, the FTC alleges that Dennis H. Harris, M.D., acting as an expert endorser for the product, misrepresented that he had sufficiently exercised his purported expertise to determine the accuracy of his claims for the product.

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