FTC and two states sue telehealth company Hims & Hers over health data sharing and cancellation barriers
The FTC, Utah and Los Angeles County allege the San Francisco-based telehealth company sent sensitive health information to advertising platforms including Meta and Snap and made subscriptions hard to cancel.
The Federal Trade Commission, the state of Utah and California’s Los Angeles County Counsel filed suit against telehealth company Hims & Hers in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on July 29, 2026, according to a press release from the FTC. The Commission voted 2-0 to authorize the action.
The complaint alleges that the company shared sensitive health information with third-party advertising platforms including Meta and Snap, both by providing customer lists and by using third-party tracking technology that automatically transmitted website visitors’ behavior. Hims & Hers is headquartered in San Francisco, and consumers must complete an online intake questionnaire and undergo clinician review before treatment, the FTC said.
On billing, the agency alleges the company charged consumers for prescriptions immediately after they submitted the questionnaire without clearly disclosing that it would do so, that most consumers never received an actual consultation with a clinician, and that they were automatically enrolled in recurring subscriptions. The complaint also alleges the company did not clearly disclose when monthly re-prescriptions would occur, making it difficult to cancel before the next charge. It cites a consumer complaint describing an immediate charge to a card.
Cancellation itself is a central allegation. Before 2023, according to the FTC, subscriptions could only be cancelled by contacting customer service by phone, email or chat. After the company introduced online cancellation in 2023, consumers still had to work through multiple steps — including selecting an option to add or remove items from an order — before a cancellation button appeared.
The plaintiffs allege violations of the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, with Utah alleging violations of the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act and California alleging false advertising and unfair competition. Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, commented on the case, which is being handled by Siobhan Amin, Barbara Chun and Jordan Navarrette of the FTC’s Western Region Los Angeles office. The matter will be decided by the court.