Consumer Fraud

Is Oprah complicit in consumer fraud?

There are links below to the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Each state has its own version of a consumer fraud act. Each is likely to be similar to Illinois’ where, incidentally, Oprah’s media empire is headquartered. 

The Illinois Consumer Fraud Act states:

(815 ILCS 505/2)

Sec. 2

Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including but not limited to the use or employment of any deception fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation or the concealment, suppression or omission of any material fact, with intent that others rely upon the concealment, suppression or omission of such material fact, or the use or employment of any practice described in Section 2 of the "Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act", approved August 5, 1965, in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby declared unlawful whether any person has in fact been misled, deceived or damaged thereby. In construing this section consideration shall be given to the interpretations of the Federal Trade Commission and the federal courts relating to Section 5 (a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act. (emphasis added)

(Source: P. A. 78‑904.)

As can be seen by the letters I sent to her offices in Chicago, Oprah and her staff likely knew about the misrepresentation made by Katz and Cruise in promoting their 3-Hour Diet as “Yale University Endorsed.” Though I cannot guarantee that they were received, none were returned to me.

Here is the text of the letter sent to Oprah's staff and the list of recipients which appear after the text.

Here is the text of the letter sent to Oprah. Other recipients appear in the CC at the end.

According to the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act:

(815 ILCS 510/)

Sec. 2. Deceptive trade practices.

(a) A person engages in a deceptive trade practice when, in the course of his or her business, vocation, or occupation, the person:

(5) represents that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection that he or she does not have; (emphasis added)

It is inarguable that Cruise and Katz misrepresented an approval/sponsorship that they did not have. Here is the letter from Yale I received. It is also available at this location and here, too.

Yet Oprah, despite her and her staff’s likely knowledge of the misrepresentation, endorsed the 3-Hour Diet in the August 2006 issue of O Magazine.

It is arguable that this is complicity in fraud, and even if it is not, it is really, really slimy.

Further, she continues to use Katz as a contributor to O magazine.