FTC Complaint Alleges 14 Million Email Addresses Were Uploaded to Meta in Hims & Hers Case
Key Facts
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an amended complaint against Hims & Hers on November 10, adding Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin to the lawsuit over privacy practices. Utah and California, represented by the Los Angeles County Counsel’s office, were already plaintiffs, bringing the total number of participating states to 7. The complaint alleges that the company uploaded about 14 million consumer email addresses to Meta between September 2020 and June 2023. It says Meta matched about 10 million of those addresses with user IDs. These are allegations in a complaint, and no ruling has established that a violation of the law occurred.
The complaint says Hims uploaded five customer lists to Snap containing a combined total of more than 1 million email addresses, and that the list names indicated interest in mental health and sexual health products. The commission also alleges that consumers’ health information was sent through Meta’s tracking tools about 8 million times, including data linked to sign-up and purchase events. The complaint says the company did not clearly disclose the sharing of health information with advertising platforms until at least May 2024. That places the use of customer data in advertising at the center of the lawsuit, alongside subscription cancellation procedures. The characterization of these practices remains part of the plaintiffs’ allegations to be presented to the court.
The complaint also addresses the cancellation process, alleging that most customers had to contact customer service to complete a cancellation before April 2023. Since that month, most consumers have been able to cancel online, according to the complaint, but the process required selecting “add or remove items from the order” and then answering additional survey questions. The commission says employees internally described the cancellation process as unclear, which remains an allegation in the case file. The FTC filed the amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The commission voted 2-0 to authorize staff to file it.
The case began with an original complaint filed by the FTC on July 29, 2026, and the amendment then added the new plaintiffs and allegations set out in the amended filing. A Hims & Hers spokesperson told Reuters that the company “will vigorously defend itself against these subsequent allegations,” adding that they are based on the same allegations raised by the government. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it believes it has meritorious arguments and intends to defend itself, but warned that the outcome of the litigation is uncertain and that potential costs or measures could materially affect its business. The company recorded a legal accrual of about $60 million as of September 30, 2026. The court set January 14, 2027, for a hearing on the company’s motion to dismiss the FTC complaint.
In its third-quarter 2026 results, Hims & Hers reported revenue of $890.4 million, up 49% year over year, while gross margin fell to 57% from 74% in the same quarter a year earlier. The company posted a net loss of $33.0 million, compared with net income of $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2025. Subscribers reached 2.788 million at quarter-end, up 13% from 2.471 million a year earlier. The company’s shares closed at $19.13 on November 10, 2026. The company lowered its 2026 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization forecast to a range of $257 million to $277 million, while forecasting fourth-quarter revenue of $875 million to $895 million and adjusted earnings of $70 million to $90 million.