Dr. Mehmet Oz – President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – is facing a public call for a federal investigation.
Consumer watchdog group Public Citizen on Tuesday urged the Federal Trade Commission to “immediately” investigate the well-known television doctor’s financial ties to a supplement company he markets on social media for potential violations that he failed to disclose endorsements and influencer marketing.
“The FTC’s influencer rules are clear, straightforward and necessary to protect consumers from unfair ads that may appear to be unbiased advice when in fact they are paid endorsements,” said Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman, who wrote the letter to the FTC, in a statement. “Dr. Oz’s apparent violations of these standards must be immediately investigated,” he said.
The push to investigate Oz stems from his ties to iHerb, according to The Washington Post, which noted that since Oz was "named a 'global advisor and stakeholder'" for the e-commerce supplement company last year, he has "heavily promoted the company across his social media accounts, including in at least 24 TikTok posts, 25 Instagram reels, 20 tweets and 20 Facebook posts," the Post said.
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The publication noted that in the majority of his posts on Instagram, Facebook and X, Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, failed to disclose any association with the company, despite FTC requirements.
“If influencers are not disclosing that their endorsements are influenced by monetary interests, consumers are being deceived and unfairly marketed to,” Weissman told the Post. “He’s not modeling the behavior of someone who is going to be attentive to those systemic concerns,” he added.
But Damon Wright, an advertising and e-commerce lawyer, told the publication it would be a “tough case for the FTC to bring against him.” He added, however, that “it would still be smarter and safer for him to identify his connection to iHerb in each post.”
The Post noted that under FTC guidelines, “disclosures are not required if the audience understands the relationship between the influencer and the company whose products are being recommended.”
Still, Oz’s marketing activities as a health influencer concern Weissman.
“If Dr. Oz is careless about fair advertising rules himself, can we expect him to crack down on those who would bilk Medicare?” he asked.
