This extraordinary case arises out of civil con-tempt proceedings that respondent Federal Trade Commission brought against Trudeau relating to his promotion in “infomercials” of his best-selling 2006 book entitled The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About (the “Weight Loss book”). In September 2007, the FTC filed a civil contempt mo- tion alleging that Trudeau had violated a previous consent decree in which he agreed, inter alia, not to misrepresent the contents of his books in infomercials promoting those books, while preserving his First Amendment rights. The FTC alleged that Trudeau violated the consent decree by describing the protocol in the Weight Loss book as “easy” and claiming that after users completed the regimen, they could eat anything they wanted without gaining weight. These and similar statements appear throughout the Weight Loss book.
The district court agreed that these and other statements in the infomercials were misleading, fined Trudeau a staggering $37.6 million, and imposed a prior restraint requiring him to post a $2 million bond before promoting his books in an infomercial. The district court took this action without requiring the FTC to prove that Trudeau misled a single consumer; violated the FTC Act; violated any consumer protection or fraud act; that any consumers relied to their detriment on Trudeau’s alleged misrepresentations; or that any consumer requested a refund of the price paid for his book and did not receive one. Instead, the district court relied on the presumption of harm in the FTC Act.
