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Buyer beware! Join us as we count down our picks for the most notorious As Seen on TV products that ended up sparking massive lawsuits! From exploding blenders and dangerous sealants to brazen patent theft and outrageous scams, these infomercial products caused way more trouble than they were worth. Which of these wild legal battles do you think is the craziest? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00With consumers across the country bursting mad, lawyers started filing suit.
00:04Now the maker of the pocket hose has settled a class action lawsuit.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the times people ended up in court over products
00:13advertised in infomercials.
00:14It's fast, it's easy, and it works.
00:19Number 10. Zippy Sack vs. Zip It.
00:21Who knew that asking kids to make their beds would lead to so much conflict?
00:24Sweetie, did you make your bed?
00:26Hey kids, never hear that?
00:27Well now, it's as easy as a zip.
00:30These products are basically sleeping bags that fit over the entire mattress.
00:33Zippy Sack's version has cute characters on it to appeal to kids.
00:36And shortly after it hit the market, Zip It came out with basically an identical product.
00:40Your Zip It friend springs to life for hours of fun, day and night.
00:44Zip It friends are the best.
00:45Zippy Sack sued for patent infringement, and the companies agreed to a settlement.
00:49Zip It would be allowed to sell its remaining 80,000 units, and then would take its product off the
00:53market.
00:53Everything went as planned, until Zip It found another 40,000 unsold sets.
00:58They tried to sell them in violation of the settlement.
01:00Zippy's Sack sued again and won again, leaving Zip It with a whole bunch of unsellable sheet sets.
01:05That's ZipItFriends.com, and get your Zip It friend today!
01:08Number 9. Coral Calcium is no miracle cure.
01:11If you watched late night TV in the mid-2000s and ever saw an infomercial for a health product that
01:15sounded too good to be true,
01:17you were probably watching Donald Barrett.
01:19And I know a lot of you watching right now believe that.
01:22You believe in natural products.
01:25He founded ITV Direct, which produced commercials for supplements, powders, weight loss systems, and alternative medicine gurus.
01:31Unsurprisingly, these commercials made a lot of dubious health claims,
01:34and Barrett got into trouble with the FTC numerous times.
01:37But there's a law that the FTC has in place, which is unconstitutional anyway,
01:43that says nothing can cure, prevent, or treat a disease unless it's a drug.
01:51In 2008, ITV was ordered to pay more than $50 million for claiming that two of its products,
01:56Coral Calcium and Supreme Greens, could cure cancer, heart disease, Parkinson's, autoimmune diseases, and more.
02:02That case was the end of ITV.
02:03So I fought the FTC, I lost, and I really, it really turned my life upside down.
02:09Number 8. Exploding Nutribullet.
02:11It's kind of surprising that this product is still on the market,
02:13considering that there's been at least 140 lawsuits filed against the company since 2014.
02:18This is not a juicer. This is a nutrition extractor.
02:22This super high-powered blender is a favorite for making healthy smoothies,
02:25but unfortunately, it has a tendency to explode.
02:28Numerous people have suffered severe injuries while using it, including cuts and burns.
02:32The spinning creates heat and pressure inside the canister, and the canister can blow up.
02:39In 2022, a New York man was making a protein shake with his Nutribullet when it exploded
02:43and severed an artery in his hand.
02:45The same year, the company paid $10 million to settle a class-action lawsuit
02:49brought by people who had been injured by the Nutribullet.
02:51Had I known that that device, that Nutribullet, could hurt me, I wouldn't have used it.
02:56And so that's what I want people to know, is that those can hurt you.
02:59Number 7. Ripple Rug vs. a Non-Existent Product
03:02Fred and Natasha Ruckel's Cat Play Mat is a simple design,
03:06which is probably why they've been plagued by copycats.
03:09Cats love the Ripple Rug. They can follow their natural instincts.
03:13When Fred Ruckel saw a commercial for a knockoff called Purr & Play,
03:16he realized it wasn't just similar. It actually was a Ripple Rug.
03:19The Purr & Play is a great way for him to play while I'm away.
03:22The label was visible in some of the shots.
03:24The Ruckels sued and discovered that Purr & Play's parent company
03:27never actually manufactured the toy. They used a Ripple Rug to film the commercial
03:30and plan to produce Purr & Plays overseas on the cheap.
03:33However, this massive company nearly bankrupted the Ruckels in court.
03:36They were forced to drop their lawsuit, but the Purr & Play was taken off the market.
03:40It's the purr-fect way for cats to scratch, play, and relax all day.
03:44It's Purr & Play.
03:46Number 6. Flex Seal.
03:47You've definitely heard of this brand, if only from the memes.
03:50The super-strong, waterproof tape
03:56that can instantly patch
03:59Bond Seal & Repair.
04:01It's also been featured in several lawsuits, some of them tragic.
04:04One man was using Flex Seal to repair his house when that can spontaneously combusted,
04:08burning his hands, arms, and neck.
04:10In 2023, a woman sued her apartment complex after renovators left a can of Flex Seal
04:14in her oven without her knowledge.
04:16When she used the oven, the can exploded, severely burning her and her daughter.
04:19I heard this big ol' boom would sound like somebody fell down.
04:23And in 2021, a boy died on an amusement park river ride
04:26when his raft started to fill with water overturned, and he was trapped underneath.
04:30The park had apparently been using Flex Seal instead of industry-approved materials
04:34to patch the rafts when they were damaged.
04:36It's just item after item after item.
04:38I refer to it as a cascading set of failures that led up to this.
04:42Number 5. Girls Gone Wild Without Consent.
04:44This company made a killing by filming intoxicated young women
04:47getting a little indecent at parties and bars and selling the DVDs.
04:51A stupid split-second decision that you make could follow you the rest of your life.
04:56Thanks to its huge success and its famous late-night commercials,
04:59everyone had heard of Girls Gone Wild.
05:00It even inspired an episode of Law & Order.
05:03You girls ready for me?
05:06I'm ready to be the baddest babe at this party.
05:09The problem was that it didn't always get the girls' consent before selling videos of them,
05:12and some of them turned out to be minors.
05:14The company settled several lawsuits and had to pay out almost $6 million after losing another.
05:19Founder Joe Francis was sentenced to a year in jail for filming underage girls.
05:23What people say and think is forever.
05:30Number 4. Weight Loss Cure.
05:31They don't want you to know about.
05:33Kevin Trudeau can't seem to stop scamming people or getting in trouble with the law.
05:37His infomercials promoted all kinds of questionable miracle cures,
05:40financial advice, and weight loss schemes.
05:42You're the only person ever to have been banned from selling a product by the FTC.
05:47You have absolutely no medical training.
05:50You're a convicted felon.
05:51Why should anyone listen to what you have to say about health matters?
05:54Why should anyone listen to a medical doctor?
05:57He made money, but eventually the FTC caught up to him.
06:00In 2004, he was fined a half million dollars.
06:02In 2007, a judge found Trudeau in contempt of court for making false claims
06:07in his book, The Weight Loss Cure That They Don't Want You to Know About.
06:09He was fined $37 million, which he never paid.
06:12Instead, he continued living in luxury and defying court orders
06:15until he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
06:17Trudeau sold more than 850,000 copies of The Weight Loss Cure.
06:22Now he's out and he's turned to a more modern medium for marketing his scams, YouTube.
06:26So now your appetite's completely normalized.
06:29You're noticing you don't have the same appetite or drive to eat food
06:34that you did when you started the protocol.
06:36Number 3. $31 Million Bunch of Balloons
06:38Telebrands, now known as Bulbhead, is the original infomercial producer.
06:42They also stole a lot of people's ideas.
06:44Josh Malone invented a gadget for filling and sealing dozens of water balloons at once.
06:49Hi, I'm Josh Malone, inventor of Bunch of Balloons.
06:51He launched his Bunch of Balloons on Kickstarter and made a deal with a manufacturer.
06:55But Telebrands managed to get their own balloon bonanza out before Malone's even hit the market.
06:59Balloon Bonanza!
07:00Making water balloons for the entire family is now super-duper easy with Balloon Bonanza.
07:07They stole the idea from the Kickstarter and started making the toy while Malone's patent was still pending.
07:12I believed in the laws of the United States and I really thought a patent would protect you.
07:19But as a practical matter, multi-billion dollar, trillion dollar now corporations just don't care.
07:25Malone and his manufacturers sued and the jury awarded them $12.5 million.
07:29The judge decided to make an example out of Telebrands and doubled the award.
07:33With attorney cost and interest, the penalty came out to $31 million.
07:37Number 2. Pocket Hose
07:38It's ironic that a company known for stealing other people's patents would be so protective of its own.
07:43Introducing the Pocket Hose!
07:45The hose so small, it fits in your pocket!
07:47Telebrands has sued multiple people for patent infringement of the Pocket Hose,
07:51including a small company called Venisi Garden.
07:54It also sued another company, Winston Products, for patent infringement.
07:57But that hose has since been recalled for exploding during use.
07:59Despite being labeled as burst-proof, more than 200 have burst, causing injuries to hoses.
08:06Believe it or not, Telebrands even tried to sue the inventor of the Pocket Hose.
08:09He wasn't listed on the patent when Telebrands filed it,
08:11and they attempted to stop him from selling his own hoses.
08:14But the inventor won that case.
08:15Craziest of all, a class-action suit was filed against Telebrands
08:19because the Pocket Hose didn't actually work that well.
08:22When he lifted it up, he was flooded by a cascade of water.
08:26It's coming out the middle of the hose.
08:27Number 1. Get Rich Quick Scams
08:29If someone promises you a secret trick to make easy money, they're scamming you.
08:33Many of the people you meet today were financially devastated when they started using Jeff's system.
08:38In 2012, following an FTC lawsuit, a court issued a summary judgment
08:41against the marketers of three different as-seen-on-TV Get Rich Quick schemes.
08:45John Beck's free and clear real estate system, Jeff Paul's shortcuts to Internet Millions,
08:49and John Alexander's real estate riches in 14 days.
08:52All promised easy cash.
08:53It sounds incredible, but it's true.
08:56But the court found that most of the people who bought them actually lost money.
08:59It fined the marketers a record $478 million for the deception.
09:03One of the defendants, John Beck, was ordered to pay $113 million.
09:07He appealed the judgment, and while the appeal was still ongoing,
09:10in fact, the day of a hearing, the 73-year-old man disappeared without a trace.
09:14John, I know we're running out of time here, but can you show me just a few more of these
09:18tax sale homes?
09:19Sure.
09:20Would you buy any of these products?
09:21Which of these stories do you think is the craziest?
09:23Let us know in the comments.
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