Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 center
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What Happened
The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, against telehealth company Hims & Hers Health in federal court in the Northern District of California. The complaint alleges the company shared customers’ sensitive health information with third-party advertising platforms — including Meta Platforms and Snap Inc. — through tracking technologies embedded on its website, despite telling users their medical information would be kept private. According to CNBC, the FTC was joined in the suit by Los Angeles County and the state of Utah.
The FTC alleges Hims & Hers disclosed data through Meta-provided tracking tools that monitor user behavior on the site and by sharing customer lists with other advertising platforms. The agency also accuses the company of billing customers for prescriptions before they had actually consulted with a healthcare provider — often charging them right after they completed an online intake form rather than after a medical consultation — and of making it unnecessarily difficult for users to cancel their subscriptions.
Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the complaint describes “a troubling scenario” in which consumers were unknowingly locked into recurring subscriptions while their private health information was disclosed to third parties without consent. The FTC’s complaint further states that Hims was able to build such precisely targeted advertising audiences only because it disregarded its own promises to treat users’ medical conditions and information “privately.”
Company Response
Hims & Hers, founded in 2017 and publicly traded, pushed back forcefully. In a statement posted to social media and cited by CBS News, the company called the allegations “baseless” and said it would defend itself in court, insisting its privacy policy makes clear that customers can control how their data is used and that information shared with healthcare providers is used only for care purposes. In a separate post on X reported by CNBC, the company said the lawsuit “disregards substantial evidence” gathered during the FTC’s nearly three-year investigation and accused regulators of “contorting the law” to construct claims. The company said it remains confident in its position and will “vigorously defend” itself.
Market and Business Context
The lawsuit triggered a sharp market reaction: Hims & Hers shares fell nearly 15% on Wednesday, according to CBS News. The company has become one of the largest players in the fast-growing telehealth market for weight-loss medications, also offering virtual prescriptions and treatments for erectile dysfunction, hair loss and mental health conditions shipped directly to consumers.
CNBC provides additional background on the timeline of the investigation, noting the FTC’s probe dates back to October 2023 and has previously touched on other aspects of the company’s business, including its Super Bowl advertising and its compounded weight-loss drug offerings. In April 2026, the FTC formally shared its investigative findings with Hims & Hers, prompting settlement discussions. The following month, in May, the company disclosed a $15 million “probable-loss” accrual tied to the matter, while warning that the ultimate cost could be significantly higher. Hims & Hers reportedly made a settlement offer at that time without admitting wrongdoing. Wednesday’s lawsuit marks an escalation of that dispute, with the FTC now pursuing formal claims in court rather than continuing settlement talks.
How the Coverage Compares
CBS News and CNBC largely agree on the core allegations — unauthorized sharing of health data with Meta and Snap, deceptive billing before medical consultation, and obstructed subscription cancellations — but each outlet emphasizes different angles. CBS News focuses more on the specific mechanics of the privacy complaint, quoting directly from the FTC’s filing about how Hims allegedly built targeted advertising audiences by breaking its privacy promises, and highlights the company’s public statement defending its privacy policy and customer choice. CNBC, by contrast, devotes more space to the financial and regulatory timeline, detailing the stock’s decline in the context of Hims & Hers’ position in the weight-loss drug market, and tracing the investigation’s history from its 2023 origins through the April findings, the May settlement offer and $15 million loss accrual, up to Wednesday’s lawsuit. CNBC also uniquely notes the involvement of Los Angeles County and the state of Utah as co-plaintiffs alongside the FTC, a detail not mentioned in the CBS account.
Why It Matters
The case adds to growing regulatory scrutiny of how telehealth and consumer health platforms handle sensitive medical data as the industry has expanded rapidly, particularly around weight-loss drugs. It also raises questions about billing transparency in an industry model where prescriptions can be issued through automated intake forms rather than direct doctor consultations, and about how easily consumers can exit subscription-based health services. The outcome could set precedent for how aggressively regulators pursue telehealth companies over data-sharing practices with major advertising platforms like Meta and Snap.
Sources
Featured photo: Harrison Keely via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)