Council for Responsible Nutrition
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Contact: Judy Blatman
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OPPOSE SB 779 Click here to download a printable floor alert with this information (PDF).

SB 779: A Tax By Any Other Name is Still a Tax

SB 779 is misguided, unwarranted, anti-business legislation

The proposed legislation would allow the state of California to indiscriminately tax businesses to pay for an overly-broad adverse event reporting program for companies that manufacture dietary supplements that would include a huge number of unsubstantiated and insignificant events.

This effort is duplicative of on-going federal efforts supported by the dietary supplement industry that would more appropriately handle adverse event reporting on a national level in a meaningful way.

SB 779 is overreaching anti-consumer legislation

California consumers are among the more than 150 million Americans who use dietary supplements safely each year to promote overall good health and prevent disease.

The proposed legislation covers a broad spectrum of popular products, including many multivitamins, Echinacea, fish oils and glucosamine/chondroitin, to name a few.

The proposed legislation would result in higher costs for consumers while not providing any added protection for their well-being.

SB 779 is unnecessarily burdensome for business and California

Dietary supplements are abundantly safe. This bill would require companies to report all adverse event reports even if the event was not caused by the dietary supplement. This will lead to frivolous lawsuits that will cost companies millions of dollars.

Even with businesses being taxed to pay for on-going costs associated with this unnecessary program, it will still cost the state of California $250,000 to get it started.

We urge all reasonable legislators to:

Oppose SB 779

The following businesses oppose SB 779:

• Abbott Laboratories
• Access Business Group/Nutrilite
• Alticor
• American Herbal Products Association
• American Laboratories
• Amway
• B&D Nutritional Ingredients, Inc.
• B&C Nutritional Products, Inc.
• Bayer Corporation
• BI Nutraceuticals
• Bio San Laboratories Inc.
• California Chamber of Commerce
• California Grocers Association
• California Manufacturers & Technology Association
• Cardinal Nutrition
• Cargill Health & Food Technologies
• Consumer Healthcare Products Association
• Council for Responsible Nutrition
• DSM Nutritional Products
• Direct Selling Association
• EAS
• Gail Becker Associates, Inc.
• General Nutrition Centers, Inc.
• Generichem Corporation
• GNLD International
• Health Concerns
• Herbalife International of America, Inc.
• Kan Herb Co.
• Leiner Health Products, Inc.
• Linnea, Inc.
• Mannatech, Inc.
• Merical Vita-Pak
• Mingtai Chemical LLC
• National Nutritional Foods Association
• Natrol
• Natural Alternatives International
• NBTY, Inc.
• Nutrition 21, Inc.
• Nutrition Business Advisors
• Oasis Health Sciences
• Pacific BioLogic Co.
• Perrigo Company
• Pharmanex LLC
• Pharmavite LLC
• Planetary Formulas
• Pro-Form Laboratories
• Proper Nutrition, Inc.
• Quixtar
• Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems
• Rhodia Inc.
• Ross Products
• Shaklee Corporation
• Source Naturals
• Threshold Enterprises
• Traditional Medicinals
• Unicity International, Inc.
• Unigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• USANA Health Sciences
• Virgo Publishing Inc.
• Vitamin Shoppe Industries Inc
• Weider Nutrition International, Inc.
• Zila Nutraceuticals
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