ST. LOUIS — Companies involved in a lawsuit over websites that review dietary supplements will have more time to gather evidence, a federal judge ruled.
In an Oct. 23 order, Judge Ronnie L. White of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri gave more time to the parties involved to comply with discovery requests.
Dietary supplement companies Nutreance LLC, Indingo LLC and Keoch Corporation filed a lawsuit against Primark LLC earlier this year.
The companies accused Primark of operating blogs and websites that pretended to give impartial reviews of dietary products. However, the plaintiffs claim the websites manipulated their ranking system and rated their own products first. In addition, the plaintiffs claimed links to the plaintiffs' products took customers to competitors.
The plaintiffs sued over violations of trademark law, false advertising, unfair competition and defamation.
In the most recent order, White asked both parties to meet and file a new scheduling plan. White denied two motions related to discovery requests, directing the attorneys to talk about their discovery disagreements amongst themselves while discussing the court management order. If they cannot come up with a solution, White said, the court would evaluate a renewed motion.