Business

FTC corrects language on Herbalife

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday corrected an earlier statement regarding a “law-enforcement investigation” into Herbalife.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Post, the FTC said some complaints against the company were withheld because the information was “obtained through a law enforcement investigation.”

The agency said yesterday that the language in its letter accompanying the FOIA request was incorrect and it should have said that the exemption from disclosure was related to “foreign sources.”

FTC spokesman Frank Dorman defined “foreign sources” as government entities, including law enforcement agencies, and the exemption relates to information-sharing between the FTC and these foreign government agencies.

The FTC said that it “may not disclose any material reflecting a consumer complaint obtained from a foreign source if that foreign source has requested confidential information.”

The agency said it could not confirm, or deny, an investigation into the nutritional supplements company.

“Other than the voluntary dialogue with regulators, which we communicated on our January investor day, we are unaware of any other regulatory interest and/or investigation,” Herbalife said in a statement.

Herbalife has been under scrutiny since hedge-fund activist Bill Ackman announced Dec. 19 that he was shorting the stock, calling the company a pyramid scheme that should be shut down by regulators.

Under the FOIA request, the FTC released 192 complaints and 729 pages of complaints from consumers in 32 states and Canada.

“For a direct-selling company of our size, we have had a relatively low number of complaints to the FTC,” Herbalife said. “However, we take every one of them seriously and stand by our record of doing right by our distributors and all consumers of our products.”