Allergan has been hit with another lawsuit from BTL Industries. The Massachusetts-based company is alleging false and misleading advertising for Allergan’s CoolTone product, claiming Allergan's advertising uses “deceptive comparisons” to its own EmSculpt technology.
The lawsuit alleges Allergan marketing, sales materials and social media advertising “feature numerous deceptive comparisons” of CoolTone to EmSculpt and misrepresents Allergan’s product performance over the BTL product. CoolTone and EmScuplt are both nonsurgical fat reduction technologies, a category that includes Allergan’s fat-freezing CoolSculpting treatments. In this case, the devices use different technologies to strengthen and tone muscle in targeted areas such as the abdomen, thighs and buttocks.
Allergan’s response was simple and direct.
“The claims are baseless and will be defended vigorously,” Allergan said in an emailed statement to FiercePharma.
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It’s the second lawsuit filed by BTL in recent months. The first was filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware in December and alleges Allergan’s device infringes the U.S. patent of BTL’s machine.
The second, advertising-based lawsuit asks for a halt to the Allergan advertising, corrective marketing, damages and attorney fees.
Allergan’s CoolTone device received FDA clearance in June, while BTL’s EmSculpt is also FDA cleared and launched in 2018. Actress Drew Barrymore debuted as EmSculpt’s celebrity spokesperson in 2019 in a promotional partnership with BTL.
“While BTL welcomes fair competition and competitive advertising, it was the egregious and misleading nature of (Allergan) marketing that compelled us to file this lawsuit," Filip Donner, director of BTL Industries, said in a news release.