SAN FRANCISCO – A class action lawsuit was filed in a U.S. district court against Florida-based Vital Pharmaceuticals Inc., doing business as VPX Sports, regarding many of the company’s nutritional claims about its BANG-brand products.
Plaintiff Ismail Imran, a California resident, filed the lawsuit Sept. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of a proposed class, which has been defined as “all persons in the United States who purchased the products during the class period.”
The plaintiff also seeks to represent a subclass of California individuals who purchased the products in question during the class period.
The lawsuit includes six counts, including fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of express warranty, as well as violations against the California False Advertising Law (FAL), California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA).
“Defendants’ labeling and marketing of the products as providing health and wellness benefits such as providing mental focus and body fuel is false, misleading and deceptive,” Imran's filing states, which was submitted on behalf of him and the class by San Diego-based Nathan & Associates APC.
Under scrutiny is the defendant’s line of BANG energy drink product line, which contains “super creatine, BCAA’s, and ultra COQ10,” the suit states.
According to the filing, the defendant makes “specific representations regarding health and wellness benefits” of its product that the plaintiff alleges are false.
According to the suit, VPX represents that consuming BANG can "reverse mental retardation," "can help cure 'Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and other forms of dementia.'"
VPX, the plaintiff claims, says that its “super creatine” is “more effective at reaching the brain than other forms of creatine.”
VPX is a nutrition company established in 1993 by its Chief Scientific Officer Jack Owoc and his team. Owoc, according to VPX’s website, "entered into the supplement industry" because of his "disgust for unscrupulous supplement manufacturers who were intentionally mislabeling their supplements and ripping the public off."
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 3:18-cv-05758