Franchisees sign up for class action against diet spray company

Slater & Gordon is investigating beleaguered diet spray company SensaSlim on behalf of dozens of franchisees who paid about $60,000 each to sell the herbal product, which was promoted as being backed by medical research.

The 70 aggrieved franchisees approached the listed law firm after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last week won an interim order to freeze SensaSlim’s assets, alleging it had misled and deceived consumers.

While Slater & Gordon senior lawyer Van Moulis was not available to speak this morning on the prospect of a multimillion-dollar class action – the Federal Court is due to meet at midday on the matter – it is understood more than 100 people signed up to sell the product in Australia.

Moulis earlier told The Age the people were “pretty angry” and many were “shocked that they seem to have been duped”.

”They had relied upon representations by SensaSlim that the product was as good as they said it was and that they had the medical research to back it up.”

The ACCC this morning declined to comment on the prospect of the Slater & Gordon class action joining its own action against the company.

According to its website, SensaSlim offers country or master distributorships, and claims its product is “the most effective slimming solution available in the world today”, with a global trial of more than 11,400 people showing an average weight loss of 15 kilograms.

“The year-long trial (six months of using the spray and then a six-month follow-up of weight monitoring) found that the average patient lost 16.9% of their body weight.”

The site says 87.2% of subjects lost 10% or more of their body weight, and goes on to claim: “In fact, the number one side effect was excess weight loss!”

Concerns about the company’s research were highlighted this week, with The Age reporting that people listed as executives were actually doctors from the United States, who say they have nothing to do with the company. 

SensaSlim is also suing a Melbourne academic for defamation regarding comments he made about the company.