Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle and wellness brand Goop settled a six-figure lawsuit yesterday filed by customers who purchased “eggs” made of rose quartz and jade that her website claimed would help women facing difficulties during menstruation.
Selling the eggs for above USD50 on its website, Goop claimed that inserting the porous minerals into a woman’s private parts would ease period cramps and help regulate menstruation cycles. The website founded and fronted by Paltrow claimed that the eggs could also be used for vaginal weightlifting which the company claims is “used by women to increase sexual energy, health, and pleasure.”
Arguing that Goop should have known that such products would not treat period-related conditions, the California consumer protection office sued the company. Yesterday, Goop settled for $145,000.
An attorney with the consumer protection bureau said in a statement: “The health and money of Santa Clara County residents should never be put at risk by misleading advertising. We will vigilantly protect consumers against companies that promise health benefits without the support of good science…or any science.”
Goop, however, still claims that the settlement is not a symbol of any liability and claimed that an “honest disagreement” led to the lawsuit: “Goop believes there is an honest disagreement about these claims, the company wanted to settle this matter quickly and amicably. This settlement does not indicate any liability on Goop’s part.”
Paltrow – known for several prominent Hollywood films like The Iron Man franchise movies, Shakespeare in Love and Se7en – announced last June that she is taking a break from acting to devote more attention to running Goop. She had said then, “I’m still going to do a little bit here and there, but [the company] really requires almost all of my time.”
This is not the first time that Goop has courted controversy for the curated products it has sold. Goop has also sold a “flower essence” that it claimed treated depression, and wearable body stickers that supposedly “re-balance the energy frequency in our bodies”.
The company, which that started in 2008 as a newsletter Paltrow circulated to her subscribers, has also been accused of selling vitamins for non-existent conditions, and has drawn flak pushing vaginal steam for cleaning one’s uterus and selling bizarre, overpriced items from a solid gold vibrator to a do-it-yourself sage-based exorcism kit.