The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has settled a case against a Santa Monica company accused of selling non FDA-approved COVID-19 tests to customers, officials announced Tuesday.
RootMD was ordered to provide full restitution for customers who purchased the testing kits, which were advertised as in-home coronavirus exposure and immunity tests, City Attorney Mike Feuer said. The kits sold for $249 each.
In addition, the company will have to pay civil penalties as a result of the case and is prevented from advertising or selling home tests kits until they get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Feuer said the RootMD case is the second such case settled in a short amount of time amid the coronavirus pandemic. He emphasized that only one home test kit has been approved by the federal government and that it still requires authorization by a health care provider and a lab must administer the results.
“Our office is continuing to focus on this issue because it’s so important to everyone in our community that we have the facts and legitimate products that actually protect us,” Feuer said Tuesday.
The city attorney also announced that his office has filed 21 additional prosecutions against nonessential businesses that continue to operate in defiance of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s safer-at-home health order. There are now 49 criminal cases pending against such businesses and here will be more until all comply with the directive, Feuer said.
He added that nonessential business that stay open during the crisis jeopardize the health of residents and lengthen the time that the economy remains closed.
“We’ll get back to work sooner and get back to a routine sooner if everyone complies with the mayor’s safer at home order in the first place,” Feuer said.
Most of the businesses recently cited were tobacco shops and Feuer urged Angelenos not to visit such businesses.
Similarly, Feuer’s office successfully defended Garcetti’s health order against a gun store for the third time Tuesday.