Litigation
The company, its executives, and various senior distributors were involved in five lawsuits between 2007 and 2009. MonaVie was the plaintiff in trademark infringement suits against rival companies Fruitology (2007) and Amazon Thunder (2007) and was the defendant in false advertising suits filed by Amway (2008), Imagenetix (2008), and Oprah Winfrey/Mehmet Oz (2009).
In July 2007, Monarch Health Sciences, the company that launched MonaVie, filed a lawsuit with the federal district court in Utah against rival açaí juice manufacturer Amazon Thunder, alleging that owner/founder Todd Reum had made “harmful, false, and defamatory statements" about MonaVie which "purportedly injured Monarch’s reputation”. The suit sought $75,000 in damages. On November 15, 2007, the Utah district court ruled to dismiss the case against Reum.
In November 2007, MonaVie, Inc. filed a trademark infringement suit against Fruitology, a rival acai beverage (Fruitavie) manufacturer, in Utah District Court. MonaVie voluntarily dismissed the suit on March 20, 2008.
In March 2008 MonaVie preemptively filed a lawsuit with the Utah district court asking for a ruling as to whether Quixtar Inc. and Amway Corp. had been over-reaching the boundaries of its non-compete agreements and address whether or not such agreements are enforceable for independent distributors.
In March 2008, Quixtar North America filed a multi-count federal court complaint against the MonaVie company and 16 of its distributors (John Brigham Hart, Lita Hart, Jason Lyons, Carrie Lyons, Lou Niles, Farid Zarif, and 10 anonymous defendants) for unfair competition. The complaint alleged that MonaVie competed unfairly by making false claims about its products. According to a company press release, MonaVie filed to dismiss the Amway/Quixtar lawsuit on April 15, 2008. On November 12, 2008, MonaVie et al. filed a lawsuit in the Colorado District Court against Quixtar
In May 2008, the MonaVie company, its board of directors, and several of its senior distributors were sued by Imagenetix, Inc. for $2.75 billion over trademark infringement arising from false claims that Monavie Active juice contained the ingredient Celadrin. The case was settled out of court and the lawsuit was dropped on May 20, 2008. On June 2, 2008 Imagenetix announced that it had entered into a new business relationship with MonaVie, the terms of which were not disclosed.
An August 2009 article in the Chicago Sun-Times reported that television celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Mehmet Oz filed suit against 40 companies that are either selling açaí or related products, with their name endorsements on them." According to their complaint, such companies are "fabricating quotes or falsely purporting to speak in Dr. Oz's and/or Ms. Winfrey's voice about specific brands and products that neither of them has endorsed." MonaVie Inc. was one of the companies named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Winfrey’s website elaborated that “consumers should be aware that neither Oprah Winfrey nor Dr. Oz are associated with nor do they endorse any açaí berry product, company or online solicitation of such products, including MonaVie juice products."
In June 2010, MonaVie attempted to sue their competitor, Zrii for copyright violation after claiming that they had copied its plan for how distributors were compensated. According to MonaVie it was causing confusion amongst distributors. They sought an injunction to prevent Zrii from continuing to use the plan, destroy all the existing copies of the plan and also claimed damages.
In December 2010 a class action lawsuit was filed against Monavie in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. The suit alleges that Monavie and its distributors, through the use of false and misleading advertising implying potential health benefits of the products, had engaged in civil conspiracy, fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment, and violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. On October 4, 2011, Monavie was issued a protective order by Arkansas Circuit Court judge Joe E. Miller, barring destruction or alteration of all advertising and documents (including e-mails, websites, and blog entries) relevant to the case. The court further mandated that the document preservation order be distributed by Monavie to each of its employees and distributors.
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