Nevada-based Vanilla Chip LLC, which does business as TruHeight, and its two principals, Eden Stelmach and Justin Rapoport, have agreed to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that they deceptively advertised the effectiveness of a range of supplements touted as supporting height growth in children and teenagers, and relied on reviews that were written by their own employees and vendors, or by consumers who were offered a free product or discount in return for writing a 5-star review.
“The law is clear: you must have competent and reliable scientific evidence to support health claims about your products or services, said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “TruHeight not only made unsubstantiated claims about its products’ capacity to boost height growth in children and teenagers but also amplified those claims with fake and incentivized reviews.”
Respondent TruHeight has been selling supplements that purport to boost height growth in children and teenagers since at least 2020. Respondents Eden Stelmach and Justin Rapoport are the co-founders, co-owners, and co-chief executive officers of TruHeight. Using social media, search engine ads, email campaigns, and the company’s website, TruHeight made claims including “Help your child grow taller! Pure Ingredients, Real Results” and “The Only Supplement Clinically Proven to Help Height Growth,” to promote its products.
According to the FTC’s complaint, however, these claims were unsubstantiated because TruHeight lacked the competent and reliable scientific evidence required to back up the height-based growth claims it made. To further induce consumers to buy its products, TruHeight also published fake positive consumer reviews.
Until at least November 2024, the FTC alleges, the TruHeight website contained several thousand five-star reviews that were purportedly written by customers but were actually written by company employees. TruHeight also offered consumers free and discounted products in exchange for leaving 5-star reviews on its own website and on third-party platforms.
Finally, the complaint alleges TruHeight used fake social media profiles that, while masquerading as belonging to real, existing users, were in reality run by automated bots. These fake profiles were used to post software-generated comments on TruHeight’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Based on this conduct, the complaint charges the TruHeight respondents with violating the FTC Act and the agency’s Reviews and Testimonials Rule.
The proposed administrative order resolving the FTC’s complaint imposes a $4 million judgment on TruHeight and its principals, which will be partially suspended based on respondents’ inability to pay the full amount. The proposed order also:
- prohibits respondents from making false or unsubstantiated height and growth claims;
- bans respondents from making any claims about the health benefits, performance, efficacy, safety, or side effects of any product covered by the order, unless the claim is not misleading and is supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence;
- prohibits TruHeight from misrepresenting: 1) that a reviewer exists, 2) that a reviewer used the product, service, or business being reviewed, or 3) the reviewer’s experience with the product, service, or business being reviewed; and
- prohibits TruHeight from buying consumer reviews conditioned on a particular sentiment – whether positive or negative – about the product being reviewed.
The Commission vote to issue the administrative complaint and to accept the consent agreement was 2-0. FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson joined by Commissioner Mark R. Meador issued a separate statement.
The FTC will publish a description of the consent agreement package in the Federal Register soon. The agreement will be subject to public comment, after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final. Instructions for filing comments appear in the published notice. Comments must be received 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Once processed, comments will be posted on Regulations.gov.
NOTE: The Commission issues an administrative complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $53,088.
The staff attorneys on this matter are Robert Van Someren Greve and Katherine Campbell in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
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