evegallardo.com

Acai has become enormously popular of late, and many on line retailers make a good living selling quality Acai products to customers seeking the next super food. Unfortunately, there are some elements of the on line community that seek to make a living taking advantage of these customers.

One such company is CCN (Central Coast Nutraceuticals), who have recently settled with Attorney General Terry Goddard for a sum of $1,375,000. The case was brought by Goddard after reports of unethical advertising and sales practices came flooding into his Arizona office.

Customers were disgruntled after discovering they’d signed up for expensive subscriptions to Acai berry and other health products without really realizing the full extent of their actions. The details of the subscriptions were contained in difficult to read and hard to find small print. Even if customers were aware of the subscription, it proved impossible to cancel due to CCN’s lack of response to e-mails and phone calls.

In addition to the acai product at the consumer had ordered, CCN was shipping additional ‘bonus’ products which were then added to the bill, and charges taken from the credit card without the owner’s knowledge.

Such behavior, Goddard deems, stretched – and broke – the boundaries of legal marketing. Some $350,000 of the settlement sum is being set aside to repay customers who found themselves out of pocket.

Whilst the settlement may seem large to us, it is a drop in the ocean compared to the revenues acquired in the first place using these dubious tactics. Honest Acai sellers across the web I hope this doesn’t affect legitimate businesses, though it seems likely that consumer confidence will take a hit.