Telehealth company Hims & Hers is facing a fresh legal battle after the Federal Trade Commission filed suit alongside the states of Utah and California.
The FTC alleges that Hims & Hers unlawfully shared consumers’ sensitive health information with third-party advertising platforms including Meta, Snap, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, and X.
Regulators also claim the company deceived customers about its billing and cancellation practices, affecting hundreds of thousands of consumers across the United States.
Hims & Hers (HIMS) is a direct-to-consumer telehealth platform offering treatments for weight management, anxiety, sexual health, and a range of other conditions.
The FTC alleges the company charged customers for unwanted medication subscriptions without their consent, and failed to make clear that completing a medical history form triggered an automatically renewing subscription.
Patients were given “virtually no opportunity to review the provider’s recommended treatment, much less consent to it,” according to the lawsuit filed in a California federal court.
Prior to 2023, the company only allowed consumers to cancel subscriptions by contacting customer service via phone, email, or chat, while also imposing additional hurdles that complicated the process further.
Even after introducing online cancellation in 2023, the FTC alleges Hims & Hers continued to obstruct customers by hiding the cancellation button from users attempting to end their subscriptions.
One consumer complaint cited in the case stated: “I was told that I would be able to speak with a doctor in a few days and that nothing would be charged to my card that day. Him’s & Her’s charged me immediately! I never gave consent to apply charges before I spoke with a healthcare professional.”
The FTC’s complaint also alleges that pixel-sized trackers placed by Meta, Snap, and other advertising giants “captured and shared users’ health information,” directly contradicting Hims & Hers’ own stated privacy policy.
Regulators argue these practices violate the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, both of which prohibit deceptive billing and subscription practices targeting consumers.
Utah alleges violations of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act, while California claims the conduct breaches its False Advertising and Unfair Competition Laws, broadening the legal exposure for the company.
This latest dispute follows a turbulent period for Hims & Hers, which recently resolved a separate lawsuit brought by Novo Nordisk over the sale and marketing of compounded GLP-1 medications.
Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy, dropped that lawsuit in March, and Hims & Hers now sells compounded GLP-1s only on a limited scale following that resolution.
The FTC first communicated findings from its 2023 probe to the company in April, after which settlement discussions began, before Wednesday’s lawsuit escalated the dispute significantly.
In May, Hims & Hers disclosed a $15 million probable-loss accrual linked to the matter, while warning investors that the final cost could be materially higher than that figure.
The company said it had made a settlement offer without admitting wrongdoing, but regulators pressed ahead with the lawsuit, introducing new claims in the process.
Hims & Hers firmly denied the allegations, stating: “This lawsuit disregards substantial evidence we provided the FTC during its nearly three-year investigation, ignores established state laws and industry standards in telehealth, and contorts the law to try to manufacture claims.”
The company added: “This is not enforcement grounded in consumer protection; it is an effort to generate headlines at our expense. We are confident in our position and will vigorously defend ourselves against these baseless claims.”