Photo Courtesy of Oprah Winfrey / Instagram
The world-renowned Oprah Winfrey is suing a company for using her name to sell weight loss gummies.
According to Bloomberg Law, Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Inc., filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against Emblaze One, Limitless X Inc., and other brands that were using the talk show host and actress’ name to promote Oprah Winfrey Keto Gummies and Oprah Winfrey CBD Gummies.
Winfrey is known to promote weight loss, mainly through her partnership with Weight Watchers. After discovering companies were misusing her name to deceive her fans, she immediately acted to end it. In the lawsuit, she requested that the court prohibit the company from using her name and force them to relinquish all profits from sales to her.
“When consumers see advertisements like this one, the only logical conclusion is that Ms. Winfrey and/or her company signed off on the use of ‘Oprah Keto Pills’ and the pills do, in fact, work,” the lawsuit read.
Her attorney also commented on the issue.
“The unlawful actions of Defendants amount to a willful and conscious disregard for [Oprah’s] rights and are intentionally designed to capitalize on the goodwill, celebrity and/or fame associated with Ms. Winfrey and/or the OPRAH brand,” Winfrey’s attorney said.
The Color Purple actress also took to her Instagram to assure fans she had no part in weight loss gummies or pills.
“And so it happened to me again today,” she began in the Instagram video. “A woman came up to me and said, ‘Can you help me get your weight loss gummies?’ And I said, ‘Ma’am, I don’t have anything to do with weight loss gummies. And let me just tell you, you’re the fifth person this week to mention it, so I’m going to address it.”
She continued, “There have been social media ads, emails, and fake websites going out, and I want you to hear it straight from me that I have nothing to do with them. Please don’t be taken advantage of, and don’t give your personal information to them.”