FTC and states sue Hims & Hers over billing and cancellation

The Federal Trade Commission, the Utah Division of Consumer Protection and the People of the State of California sued Hims & Hers Health, Inc. on July 29, 2026, alleging the company charged customers for prescription subscriptions without their express informed consent and made those subscriptions hard to cancel. Hims & Hers called the claims "baseless" the same day and said it will defend itself. The allegations are unproven, and the FTC's case page listed the matter as Pending when it was last updated on September 10, 2026.

What happened

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California as Case No. 3:26-cv-07871. It runs to nine counts. Three are brought under the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA): failure to clearly and conspicuously disclose material terms, failure to obtain express informed consent, and failure to provide simple cancellation mechanisms. California is not represented here by the state Attorney General. The People of the State of California appear "acting by and through Los Angeles County Counsel Dawyn R. Harrison," who the complaint says is authorized to bring the action by California Business and Professions Code section 17206, because Los Angeles County contains a city with a population above 750,000.

On billing, the complaint alleges that most customers are charged before they speak to anyone. It says Hims "immediately charges the consumer for the prescription, sends the prescription for fulfillment, and enrolls the consumer in a subscription treatment plan without receiving the consumer's express informed consent," while the intake flow's final call-to-action button has read "Due Now - $0" and "Pay $0 today." On refills, paragraph 41 alleges that a subscription sold as monthly is not billed monthly: Hims "has routinely charged for the first refill 10 days before the selected cadence (e.g., on day 20 after the initial charge for a monthly subscription) and required consumers to cancel two days before the refill date (e.g., on day 18 for a monthly subscription) to avoid the charge."

On cancellation, the complaint describes an online flow in which the word "cancel" did not appear on the subscription page, customers had to guess that a button labelled "Add/remove items from order" led to cancellation, and, after clicking "cancel subscription," had to work through "approximately three to ten survey questions" before the request was accepted. Paragraph 55 alleges the company knew what a simple flow looked like: "In June 2022, Hims implemented simple, single-click cancel buttons in California and Colorado. However, when it chose which online cancellation flow to implement in a handful of other states (in July 2022) and then the remaining states (in 2023), Hims chose to use the prior version of the California flow that it had refined to successfully obstruct cancellations."

Hims & Hers rejects the case. Its July 29 statement says the suit "disregards substantial evidence we provided the FTC during its nearly three-year investigation, ignores established state laws and industry standards in telehealth, and contorts the law to try to manufacture claims," adds that "this is not enforcement grounded in consumer protection; it is an effort to generate headlines at our expense," and says customers "have the information they need to make informed decisions about their care and the use of our services." The complaint also carries counts over the sharing of health information with advertising platforms including Meta and Snap; the company points to its privacy policy, which it says "makes clear that they may choose how their data is used."

Why it matters

The part of this that touches a reader's wallet today is the distance between an advertised price and a billed price, and a federal complaint now alleges that kind of distance is engineered rather than accidental.

On the Hims & Hers weight loss page, viewed in a browser on September 19, 2026, the advertised prices were Wegovy Pill from $149/mo, Wegovy Pen from $199/mo, Zepbound Vial and KwikPen from $299/mo, and Foundayo Pill from $149/mo. The footnote attached to the $149 Wegovy Pill price reads, in full: "Price includes medication only, if prescribed. An active Hims Weight Loss Membership is required ($39 for the first month, auto-renews at $149/month thereafter). Membership is billed separately and does not include or guarantee a prescription. Medication is not available without a membership. Membership fee is not included."

That is a required fee the same size as the headline price. The company's own March 26, 2026 launch release documents the same two-part structure independently: medication "as low as $149 a month," a weight loss membership at $39 for the first month and $149 a month after, and "medication costs are separate." On the cheapest advertised plan, month one is about $188 and month two is about $298 — roughly double the number in the advertisement.

In our scoring, Hims & Hers sits at 77.5 overall, with Value at 70, tied with Reputation as the lowest of its five dimension scores. We flagged this area before the FTC did: our published cons for the brand already list "Subscription auto-renewal complaints common on Reddit" and "Some pricing gated behind intake questionnaire." Our view is that a required fee disclosed only in a footnote is a transparency problem, not a subscription problem. We are reviewing the Hims & Hers score in light of the complaint. The entry was last researched on August 17, 2026 and our price database has not moved since, so we are not claiming a price trend here.

Our Hims & Hers review carries the full scorecard. The semaglutide cost guide sets these numbers against what other platforms charge, and our true cost calculator is built for exactly this problem: adding membership, medication and every other recurring line into one monthly figure before you sign up.

What this means for patients

• Check your next charge date, not just your plan name. The complaint alleges monthly plans have been billed on day 20 with a day-18 cancellation deadline. Whatever your plan, confirm the date in your account rather than assuming a 30-day cycle.
• Add the membership fee to the advertised price before comparing platforms. On the Hims & Hers weight loss page the two are separate line items, and the medication price alone is not what you pay.
• If you want to stop a subscription, keep a record. Note the date you cancelled, save the confirmation, and check the next statement. The allegations in this case concern cancellations that customers believed had gone through.
• Nothing in this case changes what you have been prescribed. Do not change anything about your treatment because of a lawsuit; questions about your prescription go to your prescriber.
• If you are shopping, compare total monthly cost, not the headline. See our Hims & Hers alternatives page and the Hims & Hers vs Ro comparison, and note that Ro also charges a separate membership on top of medication.
• Watch the docket, not the press release. The case is listed as Pending, no court has ruled on any of it, and the company denies the allegations.