Noom, the ‘Empowering’ Diet App, Sued for Allegedly Stealing a Fitness Instructor’s Photo For an Ad

Noom is a subscription-based wellness service touted as a more ethical alternative to traditional wellness. diet applications. So it is somewhat surprising that the application would be accused of lifting a fitness instructor’s photo without his consent to use it in his Facebook ads.

Candice Rivers, a fitness instructor who goes by Candace Harmony on Instagram, filed a lawsuit against the company last December for allegedly using a promotional photo of herself for a Facebook ad. In the ad, according to court documents, Noom featured a photo of Rivers lifting weights with the caption “I was pushing a size 16, now a year later I’m a size 10.” “Noom’s secret? Brainpower, Not Willpower”, says the headline of the publication.

In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Greg Harp, a Birmingham, Alabama, attorney representing Rivers, says Rivers had not posted the photo on Facebook or on his own website. “We don’t know how Noom acquired the photograph,” he says. Harp also alleges that Noom falsely attributed the “size 16, size 10” quote to Rivers, inadvertently suggesting that he had used the weight-loss app, which he did not. “It had several people reach out to say, ‘I saw the ad on Facebook, if Noom is good enough for you, it’s good enough for me,'” he says.

When Rivers requested that Noom remove the ad, Harp says, the company did so immediately. Nonetheless, Rivers is suing Noom under Alabama’s right to privacy law, alleging that the company “knowingly and willfully attributed false and misleading quotes to [the plaintiff]” and that Noom “recognized profits from the unauthorized use of [plaintiff’s] identity.” Such an act, they are arguing, viola Facebook’s advertising policies, which dictate that “ads must not contain content that infringes or violates the rights of others, including copyrights, trademarks, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights.”

“For a person like my client, who built his business from scratch and this is his primary source of income and life’s work right now, it’s extremely significant that someone says, ‘We’re going to use it to market our products and services without your input. permission and, in doing so, they attribute false quotes to him,’” says Harp. Noom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Founded in 2008, Noom launched its app in 2016, earning $400 million in revenue and nearly 50 million users worldwide, as well as high-profile investors like Serena Williams, Sequoia Capitol and Samsung Ventures. It has gained market share primarily by positioning itself as a healthier and more ethical alternative to weight loss apps, although it is based on calorie counting and requires users to weigh themselves daily similar to traditional diet apps. . (“Noom uses the latest in proven behavioral science to empower people to take control of their health forever,” says its Promotional material.) Noom has also faced criticism for encouraging eating disorders, though it discourages users who download the app from using it if they have an “active diagnosis” of an eating disorder.

Rivers’ lawsuit is not the first time Noom has faced legal action. In 2020, the company was affected by a class action lawsuit lawsuit for allegedly trapping users into free trial periods that were difficult for them to cancel, resulting in them racking up onerous non-refundable fees. Last August, a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Noom’s request for dismissal, which allows for the nearly $100 million lawsuit to proceed.