Youngevity’s renewed legal action against Dave and Barb Pitcock has come to an end.

As per a March 22nd order, the Pitcocks and defendants Innov8tive Nutrition, LaCore Enterprises, LaCore Nutraceuticals and LaCore Labs prevailed on a motion to dismiss.

Dave and Barb Pitcock (right) head up Innov8tive Nutrition, with Barb serving as CEO.

Innov8tive Nutrition is part of LaCore Enterprises, which in turn is owned by Terry LaCore.

Youngevity’s Californian lawsuit against Innov8tive Nutrition and Pitcocks followed a legal settlement reached on litigation dating back to 2016.

In their May 2022 filed Complaint, Youngevity took issue with the way Innov8tive Nutrition marketed its vitamin patches.

Innov8tive and Innov8tive promoters … use comparative advertising by claiming either explicitly or implicitly that their products use a mechanism for consumers to absorb vitamins and nutrients that is superior to Youngevity’s capsule, liquid, and powder based dietary supplements.

Youngevity proffered lab results purportedly disproving Innov8tive Nutrition’s marketing, and claimed they’d lost distributors and customers as a result of the alleged conduct.

As per the court’s March 2023 order, Youngevity’s lawsuit was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.

Plaintiff has not sufficiently alleged that Innov8tive expressly aimed its suit-related conduct at California.

Without meeting its burden to show that Defendants’ conduct was expressly aimed at California, Plaintiff cannot establish that Defendants purposefully directed their activities at California.

Youngevity had requested permission to amend its Complaint to address jurisdictional shortcomings, but was denied.

Plaintiff has had the opportunity to present additional jurisdictional allegations, and the Court has reviewed those allegations, resolving all factual disputes in its favor.

Despite that, Plaintiff failed to make out a prima facie case for personal jurisdiction over any Defendant, and requests an additional opportunity to bolster its allegations.

The Court finds that, based on Plaintiff’s opposition and evidence already considered, further leave to amend is unwarranted because it would be futile.

In granting the Motion to Dismiss, the court closed Youngevity’s case.

For me the particularly interesting aspect of Youngevity’s case was the claim Innov8tive Nutrition’s patches “had no vitamins” – and that this claim was allegedly backed up by verifiable lab results.

Unfortunately, Youngevity’s allegations pertaining to the stated amounts of vitamins in Innov8tive Nutrition’s patches remain unresolved.

 

Update 21st April 2023 – On April 13th Youngevity informed the court it has filed an appeal against the Motion to Dismiss order.

I’ll keep an eye on the Youngevity v. Innov8tive Nutrition docket for an update on whether the order is upheld or appealed.