The state of Texas sued influencer Brittany Dawn Davis over claims that her online fitness program allegedly misled and negatively impacted clients who suffered from eating disorders.
According to People, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit against the 30-year-old and her company, Brittany Dawn Fitness LLC, in the Dallas County Court on February 1. In court documents obtained by the outlet, he is seeking between $250,000 and $1 million in civil penalties, attorneys’ fees, and costs from her for allegedly violating the Deceptive Trade Practices Act by engaging “in false, misleading, and/or deceptive acts or practices.”
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Davis – who has over 465,000 followers on Instagram and 247,000 subscribers on YouTube – started selling online fitness packages back in 2014, offering individualized nutrition plans and fitness coaching to her customers. According to the legal documents, thousands of people ended up purchasing the program, which cost anywhere from $92 for a one-time consultation to $300 for three months of personalized coaching and training from the social media personality. However, she allegedly never held up her end of the deal.
Paxton claims the plans were not customized to individual needs, and her company “largely ignored consumer complaints,” including from one client “who almost passed out from inadequate nutrition.” If Davis or the business did reply to customer complaints, they would offer “only partial refunds” in response.
Additionally, the fitness guru was accused of misrepresenting her ability in giving health advice to those with eating disorders. When promoting her program on social media, she often opened up in videos about overcoming an eating disorder through exercise and a healthy diet – leading many people to believe she had the proper training to help clients who experienced similar struggles.
One person shared in the lawsuit that “the main reason I chose her [Ms. Davis] out of all the coaches out there was specifically that she advertised herself as an ‘eating disorder soldier.” She also noted that she suffered from anorexia and weighed less than 80 pounds at one point. However, Davis supposedly only offered customer’s low-calorie diet plans “that would only be suitable for someone who needed to lose weight, not put it on.”
Davis denied the allegations that she “accepted consumers with eating disorders,” but around 14 people mentioned they had eating disorders in their complaints. One person shared that they even brought it up in their onboarding survey for the program:
“I truly need guidance, help, the right information and support right now. I currently have an eating disorder, horrible body image views … I am underweight for my height.”
To which Davis allegedly replied:
“Great! Welcome to the #teambrittanydawn family.”
On top of everything else, she was also accused of charging shipping fees even though her services arrived via email. Really?!
When allegations first popped up back in 2019, Davis actually pulled her website and issued an apology on YouTube to her followers. And on Wednesday, she addressed the lawsuit on IG Stories, saying:
“Do you ever just start laughing at Satan’s tactics? They are so petty and so obvious to us that are in the kingdom of God that you can literally just start audibly laughing.”
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[Image via Brittany Dawn Davis/Instagram]