Wellness Businesses

From negotiating your lease, to ensuring your establishment and stylists comply with The Barbering and Cosmetology Act, Healthwise Legal advises hair salons on everything from start-up considerations, employment issues, booth rental agreements, and product sales commissions to business expansion, insurance and strategic partnerships.

When the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) reviews a product, it makes a regulatory classification of the product into categories such as: cosmetic, dietary supplement, medical device, or drug. Sometimes the product can be classified by the FDA as a combination product, in which case the product must meet the legal requirements for both kinds of products.

The FDA looks to the “intended use” for the product and typically evaluates the claims a company makes for its products.

For example, dietary supplements are defined as part of one, or any combination of: a vitamin, a mineral, an herb or other botanical, an amino acid, a dietary substance for use by people to supplement their diet by increasing the total dietary intake, or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, or extract. Dietary supplements can only be sold with “structure/function” claims. Therapeutic or “disease” claims are prohibited.

If the FDA determines that “disease claims” are involved for, say, a dietary supplement or cosmetic, then the FDA will classify that healthcare product as a “drug” and the product will be deemed legally “misbranded.”

Healthwise Legal helps clients understand the FDA and FTC requirements for creating a new wellness product or supplement, and guides them from beginning to end to ensure the successful launch of their product.

Whether you provide aesthetic services, fitness classes, the use of equipment or alternative healing modalities like reiki, we help you protect your business from liability with strong service agreements, client forms and liability waivers.

Navigating the regulatory requirements for estheticians, we ensure your spa can offer the best quality services without triggering healthcare regulatory violations.

Healthwise Legal’s expertise in corporate transactions, extends to your entity, providing counsel on commercial leases, equipment purchases and leases, corporate formation, employment and purchase and sales.

Healthwise Legal helps creators navigate the murky advertising requirements in California and federally, including those specific to the promotion of health and wellness products.

We have experience successfully protecting the intellectual property of creators, from trademark and copyright registration, to bringing actions for violation of the Copyright Act and California Civil Code for the unauthorized use of creators’ hard work.

Have a product you want to launch? Looking to work on a paid partnership with a brand? Healthwise Legal advises creators on brand partnership deals, and product launches meticulously analyzing each step from both a regulatory and transactional lense.