Ameritox False Advertising Case

In the city of Baltimore, a federal jury came to the decision, finding Ameritox guilty of false advertisement. The company is known for being the biggest drug screening laboratory in the United States. Allegations were made against the company, stating that some of their advertisements were false and that they were being deceptive to a number of physicians about a particular monitoring system for medication, the Rx Guardian. The jury agreed, in a unanimous vote, with a ruling that was made by Benson Everett Legg, the Judge in the case. Judge Benson Everett Legg stated that urine drug tests could not provide information as to whether or not patients were taking certain prescription drugs, even the Rx Guardian. Legg also stated that making such claims is considered to be false statements and ultimately, false advertisement.

A civil lawsuit was placed against Ameritox from the Millennium Laboratories, in which the company stated that Ameritox falsely advertised for the Rx Guardian over a span of four years, from 2008 until 2012. The feud between these companies has been ongoing for quite a while and it seems as though the verdict that was decided by the jury will finally end the dispute for good. Millennium did not receive monetary rewards but the court did set up an order, in which customers of Ameritox were sent out a letter about the advertising and the fact that some of the advertisements made were a bit misleading.

The CEO of Millennium Laboratories, James Slattery, argued that Ameritox has been making false claims for almost an entire decade. Slattery says that because of the false claims, physicians were tricked into believing that the Rx Guardian could help them figure out whether or not the patients were taking the prescription medication and whether or not the patients were taking the recommended dosage of the medication that was prescribed to them. Because of this, many physicians and patients suffered as a result of the outcome.

Slattery said that the Rx Guardian could actually cause mixed results, results that were not necessarily true or accurate, meaning patients that misused drugs could have ended up being found compliant based on the results and vice versa. Slattery points out that the product is obviously dangerous to use because it does not provide accurate results. He also says that Ameritox did not value its customers, the physicians nor did they seem to care about the patients and how the damaging results could affect them, especially if the results did not come out accurately for the physicians when testing patients. For years, the company lied in their advertisements and their lies caused problems for both the physicians and the patients, which was not fair to anyone.