--- title: "Lawsuit Accuses Walmart and CVS of Equating Homeopathic Treatments With Real Medicine" description: "A federal court has revived a lawsuit against Walmart and CVS for allegedly passing off long-discredited homeopathic treatments as actual, proven medicine. " date: "2022-10-04" modified: "2022-10-04" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/walmart-cvs-sued-homeopathic-treatments" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "RX and Medicine" - "Treatments" tags: - "fda" - "homeopathy" - "medicine" - "pseudoscience" --- # Lawsuit Accuses Walmart and CVS of Equating Homeopathic Treatments With Real Medicine ![A federal court has revived a lawsuit against Walmart and CVS for allegedly passing off long-discredited homeopathic treatments as actual, proven medicine. ]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* A federal court has revived a lawsuit against Walmart and CVS for allegedly passing off long-discredited homeopathic treatments as actual, proven medicine. A three-judge panel in the District of Columbia's Superior Court is set to look into why [the newly-revived suit](), filed by an anti-pseudoscience nonprofit called the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and which charges the retail giants of misleading consumers into equating homeopathy and government-approved medicine. , was dismissed by a lower court Last week, the [DC Superior Court overturned]() a pair of rulings from lower courts which denied that the CFI had a plausible case against the retailers when alleging that CVS and Walmart violated the district's Consumer Protection Procedures Act by using "marketing, labeling, and product placement" that "falsely present\[s\] homeopathic products as equivalent alternatives to science-based medicines." Though the scientific and medical communities [have by and large]() [rejected homeopathy]() — which operates on the principle that "[like cures like]()" and claims to administer tiny, water-soluble doses of illness-causing agents which can end up being so minute that [they can't be detected]() at all — as pseudoscience, the US government, retailers, and much of the consumer public haven't been as quick to do so. In its suit, CFI notes that it has regularly testified before and petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in hopes of convincing the agency to better regulate these purported natural treatments, and although the FDA did indeed [begin to crack down some on homeopathy]() in late 2017, these products nonetheless are often found marketed online and in-store right next to the real thing. In the case of Walmart, per the CFI suit, the homeopathic products that were placed in an allegedly-misleading way next to real over-the-counter medicine were a combination of store brands and outside brands, which presents another layer to the case as well. As [*Reuters* noted](), the superior court's overruling of the lower courts also establishes an interesting precedent in which nonprofits like CFI have standing to sue under DC law in spite of the lower courts' judgement that it did not technically qualify as a nonprofit that is, as the law permits, "organized and operating, in whole or in part, for the purpose of promoting interests or rights of consumers." It's worth noting that there certainly are natural remedies that appear to work at *least* on a placebo level — we're looking at you, [chicken noodle soup stans]() — and the FDA has also been criticized for approving drugs that [*don't* appear to work.]() But the pseudoscience behind homeopathy — which includes, among other beliefs, that [water can "remember" molecules]() as an effort to explain away it's the most uber-diluted snake oils sold by homeopaths — has been robustly refuted by a great variety of studies spanning many decades. **More pseudoscience:** *[Hangover "Cures" Are Total Nonsense, According to Science]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()