New York Salon Chain Responds to Attorney General Accusations

New York’s Attorney General targeted two indoor tanning businesses this past week — issuing a public statement that to many seemed more like an attack of the tanning industry in general than legal action against a specific violation.

Perhaps most bizarre: The attorney general’s action claims that sunbeds don’t make vitamin D because they emit mostly UVA — a false statement made by many anti-tanning groups that the AG repeated almost verbatim.

New York salon chain Total Tan, a 29-store chain named in one of the cases, fired back at state attorney general Eric Schneiderman in the press, refuting his charges that the business violated state laws against unfair business practices and false advertising. Lawsuits filed against Total Tan and another New York salon chain, Portofino Sun, claim that both businesses engaged in deceptive advertising by downplaying potential health risks and promoting benefits from indoor tanning. Total Tan has refuted the allegations, with the chain’s lawyers citing a business professor who did not find the salon’s claims to be “misleading or otherwise deceptive.”

“The attorney general’s claim that Total Tan produced misleading advertising is not true,” law firm Harris Beach said in a statement on behalf of the tanning business. “We are a small, Upstate, family-owned business that refuses to be intimidated by Mr. Schneiderman, who is trying to impose his own view of the world on our industry and the citizens of Upstate New York.”

The suit and Total Tan’s response were attachments to an article appearing in the Syracuse Post Standard online.

Schneiderman’s suit states that, “Modern tanning beds, even with repeated use, will not stimulate significant production of vitamin D” and “There are significant limitations on the effectiveness of vitamin D production from indoor tanning. The body produces vitamin D in response to UVB exposure – not UVA exposure (the kind of UV emitted from most sunlamps).”

Outdoor sun’s UV spectrum, like a sunbed, is mostly UVA. And most sunbeds emit UVB in levels similar to summertime sunlight.

As well as denying wrongdoing, Total Tan filed a complaint against the lead state investigator in the matter, claiming that the investigator’s spouse had previously been employed as an executive at Total Tan and the investigator failed to disclose this potential conflict of interest. “I am left with little confidence that my client will be treated fairly moving forward. In fact, I now strongly believe that my client is the victim of bias and improper targeting by the OAG,” Harris Beach wrote in the complaint on behalf of Total Tan. “I hope that at a minimum you inquire into this matter so that the public may have confidence that the OAG is not being misused to settle personal and private disputes.”

The Attorney General last week also filed a notice of intent to bring suit against another New York salon chain, Beach Bum Tanning, and Planet Fitness, which has 14 locations across the state.

If you have any questions about what you can and cannot say in your salon’s messaging, please contact your Smart Tan representative at 800-652-3269.