SF-based telehealth company Hims Hers is being sued by the FTC and the states of California and Utah over alleged predatory business practices, including sharing private health data with advertisers and misleading customers over charges and services.Federal regulators and the attorneys general of C alifornia and Utah accuse Hims Hers of steering customers into recurring prescription subscriptions without adequately telling them they were committing to a purchase. The complaint alleges people were led to believe they were simply completing a free medical screening, only to later discover they had been prescribed medication, charged, and enrolled in automatic renewals without a chance to review or approve the treatment first.As the Chronicle reports, customers saw language such as “Pay $0 today,” “Due Now — $0,” and “You will only be charged if prescribed,” while key details about recurring billing appeared in smaller, less prominent text. Regulators also allege the company failed to clearly explain when refill charges would begin, with some monthly subscribers reportedly billed for refills as early as the 20th day and required to cancel by the 18th day to avoid the next charge.“The FTC’s complaint lays out a troubling scenario—consumers unknowingly locked into recurring subscriptions and the disclosure to third parties of consumers’ most private health information without their consent,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement, per SFGate.The complaint also accuses the San Francisco-based telehealth company of making it unnecessarily difficult for customers to cancel. Before 2023, most users reportedly had to contact customer service by phone, email, or online chat to end subscriptions. Although Hims Hers later added online cancellation for most customers, regulators say the option was buried behind an "Add/remove items from order" menu, requiring users to remove every product and answer multiple survey questions before they could complete the process. The lawsuit alleges the company had already rolled out a simpler one-click cancellation option for customers in California and Colorado in 2022 but continued using the more cumbersome process elsewhere.The FTC and California also allege Hims Hers shared customers' sensitive health information with advertising platforms, including Meta and Snap, through customer lists and website tracking tools such as Meta Pixel and Meta's Conversions API, despite reportedly marketing its services as “100% online, private, and secure.” The complaint also identifies tracking technologies from Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok, X and other companies, while California alleges the data-sharing continued through at least May 2024 without customers' consent, according to the Chronicle.Hims Hers denied the allegations, saying its privacy policy explains how customer information is handled and that information shared with healthcare providers is kept separate from marketing activities. The company said it has strengthened its systems over time to prevent protected health information from being used for advertising."This is not enforcement grounded in consumer protection; it is an effort to generate headlines at our expense," the company said. "We are confident in our position and will vigorously defend ourselves against these baseless claims."The Chronicle reports that the lawsuit alleges violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act, California laws governing false advertising, unfair competition, privacy, and automatic renewals, and Utah's Consumer Sales Practices Act. California is seeking civil penalties of up to $2,500 for each alleged violation of its unfair competition and false advertising laws.Founded in 2017, Hims Hers has reportedly grown into one of the country's largest direct-to-consumer telehealth companies, offering treatments for hair loss, sexual health, mental health, skin care, and weight loss. As SFGate notes, the company has also faced scrutiny over its sale of compounded GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. Earlier this year, drugmaker Novo Nordisk dropped a lawsuit after Hims Hers agreed to stop selling compounded GLP-1 medications and instead offer Novo-branded products.Related: SF Telehealth CEO Gets Six Years In Prison, $1 Million Fine In Federal Adderall Fraud CaseImage: Orbon Alija/Getty Images ...read more read less