Nutrafol is probably one of the fastest-growing supplement brands for healthy hair growth. The brand has a range of products for men and women formulated to target hair loss.
But because of the brand’s popularity, the company has attracted a wide range of positive and negative reviews. At the same time, some individuals have even filed suits against the brand.
For instance, from what we could gather, the parent company to Nutrafol known as Nutraceutical Wellness, Inc was taken to court on three (3) separate occasions in recent months. The good news is that all the lawsuits were terminated by “voluntary dismissal” with or without prejudice.
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What is Voluntary Dismissal?
In simple words, voluntary dismissal occurs when a lawsuit is terminated by the voluntary request of the plaintiff. The plaintiff is usually the party who originally filed the lawsuit.
Generally, voluntary dismissal applies in both civil and criminal cases. The dismissal can either be with or without prejudice.
If a lawsuit is dismissed with prejudice, it means that it cannot be reopened or re-filed in court. However, when a case is voluntarily dismissed without prejudice, the petitioner or the prosecutor can choose to re-file the lawsuit at a later point.
A Series of Nutrafol Lawsuits and How They Were Concluded
Like we have already mentioned, so far 3 lawsuits have been filed against Nutrafol and none of them qualifies as a class action lawsuit. But what caught our attention is that the suits were filed in separate courts, on different dates, and for various reasons.
So, in this article, we are going to analyze these cases, in brief, to help you understand what they are all about.
Case 1: Foley v. Nutraceutical Wellness, Inc
The first complaint against Nutrafol’s parent company was filed by Ian Foley on October 20, 2020, in New York Western District Court. However, it was later terminated on November 23, 20202 by voluntary dismissal.
From what we could gather, the nature of the suit was 446 Civil Rights – American’s w/Disabilities – Other. Basically, this type of suit is all about discrimination against individuals with disabilities in areas other than employment.
Overall, there is not much information about this case available. However, we could deduce that the lawsuit was about Nutrafol’s website not being fully usable or accessible by individuals with visual disabilities.
This is because such a similar nature of suit had been filed against Vegamour recently. Vegamour is a well-known hair supplements manufacturing and a competitor to Nutrafol.
According to the plaintiff, the defendant (Vegamour) did not take any reasonable action in ensuring visually impaired persons could independently access their site. This had to do with most of their images not being properly labeled and some of their button elements being empty.
Both Nutrafol and Vegamour cases were dismissed but even then, we hope that these two supplement manufacturers have taken steps to make their services better accessible to persons living with disabilities.
Case 2: Fischler v. Nutraceutical Wellness, Inc
This is yet another lawsuit that was filed against Nutraceutical Wellness, under the Nutrafol brand name. The case was filed by Brian Fischler on October 22, 2020, in New York Federal court under Judge Alison J. Nathan.
According to the plaintiff (Fischler), he alleged that Nutrafol website was not accessible per the WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards. Some of the issues the plaintiff wanted to be addressed included:
- Improperly labeled images
- Form controls lacking labels
- Webpages using duplicate IDs
- The PDFs are not properly tagged making them inaccessible to screen readers
- Some headings being empty
- Empty button elements
- Links lack surrounding text that explains their purpose but rather use the general text.
Additionally, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant operated a website in a way that discriminated against blind persons. According to Fischler, Nutrafol’s website did not provide full access for individuals with disabilities.
Unfortunately, we could not find details about the exact date when the case was terminated. What we found is that the suit was ended through voluntary dismissal.
Case 3: Lewis v. Nutraceutical Wellness, Inc
On February 10, 2020, Diane Lewis also filed a suit against the parent company to Nutrafol. The case was filed at the New York Southern District Court and was presided by Judge Gregory H. Woods.
However, unlike the other suits that had to do with discrimination against persons with disabilities, the nature of this case was 442 Civil Rights – Employment. The plaintiff sued the defendant alleging sex discrimination as far as employment was concerned.
In the end, all of the claims were dismissed with prejudice and without any costs to any of the parties involved. This means that the plaintiff cannot litigate the same claim against Nutraceutical Wellness, Inc in any court.
Final Thoughts on Nutrafol Lawsuits
Overall, Nutrafol seems to have a good reputation despite the few lawsuits filed against its parent company. This is probably because none of the suits have anything to do with the quality and safety of their products. Besides, all the cases were dismissed voluntarily by the plaintiffs.
Therefore, it would be fair to say that their products have not in anyway been subjected to any legal processes or even investigations. That said, be sure to read our detailed review of Nutrafol products in this article and find out why we’re hesitant to recommend them to our audience.
My name is Vicki. I’ll just get to the point. I took Nutrafol for only one month. It has damaged my liver. My doctor doesn’t know if my liver will ever be normal again. This product is unsafe for some people and needs to hold the makers accountable.