False Ad Suit Over ‘First’ Urgent Care Clinic Claim Falls Short

A nationwide health-care provider lost its lawsuit over a competitor’s claim to have been the first to open an urgent care clinic in Birmingham, Ala., as a federal trial court found the competitor’s advertisements weren’t materially misleading.

American Family Care failed to prove that MedHelp PC violated the federal Lanham Act by falsely advertising itself as the first provider of urgent-care services in Birmingham on its website, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama said.

AFC opened its first clinic in Hoover, Ala., in June 1982. MedHelp opened in Homewood, Ala., the following September.

In 2016, AFC ...