"Dr. Means, are you familiar with [Federal Trade Commission] policy that requires those who are recommending products online to disclose their financial connection to those companies?" Murphy asked.
"In particular, the document from the FTC says this, 'If you endorse a product through social media, your endorsement message should make it obvious when you have a relationship with the brand.' Are you familiar with that?"
Means replied, "Certainly."
Murphy mentioned the pending complaint "regarding your failure to adhere to those guidelines, that basically makes the contention and this committee has verified the data that underlies their complaint, that you routinely violated this policy and that in fact, in the majority of your posts for many of the products you recommend, you did not transparently reveal your financial connection."
"That's false," Means said.
Murphy brought up Means' connection to WeNatal, a prenatal vitamin company, which Means' filings show she received compensation for in spring 2024.
"And yet in September of 2024, you posted a video saying you 'had no financial relationship to the company — just a big fan,'" Murphy said. And then in October, you said, 'not sponsored, just love these.' But in fact you have documentation before this committee that showed, when you said those things, you had a financial relationship. You had already started receiving money from that company."
Means denied receiving partnership fees for the product promotion.
"It's incorrect and it's a false representation," Means said. "And just to be very clear, I've spent the last several months working with the Office of Government and Ethics to be fully compliant with this process. I take it very seriously."
Murphy listed other companies Means has had reported ties to, including Genova Diagnostics, Daily Harvest and Zen Basil Seeds, and claimed she had not consistently disclosed her financial connections to the companies.
"This seems systemic. It seems that in the majority of instances, in which you were, as a medical professional recommending a product, you were hiding the fact that you had a financial partnership," Murphy added. "You seem to be in regular, willful violation of the FTC rules. That is concerning as someone who agrees with Sen. Cassidy that our focus has to be on restoring trust in the medical profession and yet, over and over again, you seem to be at scale, recommending products without telling your followers."
Murphy also pointed out that Means has a large following — 200,000 newsletter subscribers and nearly 1 million Instagram followers.
"It sounds like you have a lot to say about this issue and I would be very interested to see how your staff looked at this data," Means said. "I have a strong feeling that the way in which they gathered this data is done intentionally to create these claims that you're making."
Murphy responded, saying he had the backup information to the claims. But Means pushed back again on his remarks.
"I don't think that's true," Means said. "And if it inadvertently has happened, I would rectify that immediately. However, I would be interested to see how your staff gathered this data... I take conflict of interests very seriously."
