FTC Sues Hims & Hers Over Privacy, Subscriptions
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- The FTC, joined by Utah and California, sued Hims & Hers on Wednesday, alleging the telehealth company deceived consumers and violated their privacy in multiple ways.
- The suit claims Hims misled consumers about sharing sensitive health information with third parties including Meta and Snap.
- Hims allegedly didn't disclose that completing a medical history enrolls consumers in a recurring subscription that continually bills them for medication, the lawsuit alleges.
- Patients are given 'virtually no opportunity to review the provider's recommended treatment, much less consent to it,' the lawsuit alleges, while the platform makes subscription cancellations deliberately difficult.
- Hims responded on X, calling the lawsuit an effort to 'generate headlines at our expense' and claiming the FTC 'ignores established state laws and industry standards in telehealth,' pledging to 'vigorously defend' itself.
- The action continues a pattern of FTC enforcement against digital health companies' business practices and use of consumer health data.
Why it matters: This dual-state FTC action targets a high-profile telehealth brand at the intersection of two regulatory flashpoints — health data sharing with ad-tech firms like Meta and Snap and subscription models that auto-bill without clear consent — putting the broader direct-to-consumer telehealth sector on notice about how onboarding flows and ad-tech disclosures are scrutinized.
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