FTC targets one of the biggest supplement brands with a “first of its kind” Amazon case only two months after updating its advertising guidance document for the supplement industry. I tried to warn you in previous content about the FDA and FTC that things would be getting gnarly in for supplement industry stakeholders in 2023! On February 16, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took action against The Bountiful Company, maker of Nature’s Bounty dietary supplements, with “review hijacking” on Amazon and using them to deceive consumers. Review hijacking happens when sellers find ways to grab positive customer reviews from other products and integrate them into their own listings. Sometimes its Amazon sellers looking for abandoned products that were popular before, then stealing the listing, and making use of the old page reviews to create a false sense of trust for their product. Other times its Amazon sellers merging its new products with different well-established products that had more product ratings and reviews, higher average ratings, and “#1 Best Seller” and “Amazon’s Choice” badges. According to the FTC, The Bountiful Company did the latter, by taking advantage of an Amazon feature that allows vendors or sellers to create or request the creation of “variation” relationships between some products that are similar but differ only in narrow, specific ways – such as color, size, quantity, or flavor. Why would The Bountiful Company (allegedly) do that? It's well-established that new products launching on Amazon face a "cold start" problem because of minimal traffic and zero reviews. Beyond explaining in-depth the FTC & The Bountiful Company "review hijacking" case, I want to explain why a nuance of Amazon’s involvement and relationship with The Bountiful Company could create huge implications to supplement brands selling on the Amazon ecommerce platform. All I can say is that when it comes to mixing Amazon, the supplement industry, and recent regulatory agency focus (FDA or FTC), Amazon will be watching closely and making the necessary changes to safeguard itself. Yes, it might sell an estimated $11 billion in supplements annually, but that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. So, if the FTC has noted its plans to focus on review hijacking, and the supplement category was made the example of its first case, it inevitably means that Amazon will be making changes that effect everyone from 1P vendors to 3P sellers of supplements.

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