SmileDirectClub Files $2.8 Billion Lawsuit Against NBC Over Defamatory And Error-Filled ‘Nightly News’ Story

Story Had 40+ Errors, Ignored Facts Handed to Reporter Prior to Broadcast

NBC News Never Intended to Tell the Truth, Suit Claims

NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmileDirectClub, Inc. (NASDAQ: SDC) the oral care company and first direct-to-consumer medtech platform for teeth straightening, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit seeking approximately $2.8 billion from NBC Universal Media (“NBC”) and reporter Vicky Nguyen for knowingly and intentionally making factually inaccurate, misleading and defamatory claims about the Company and its platform on an NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt report.

NBC’s February 13, 2020 ‘Nightly News’ report contained more than 40 false and misleading statements about SmileDirectClub and the treatment patients receive from the hundreds of board-certified doctors who use the company’s platform to treat patients, the Company said in the lawsuit filed at the state courthouse in Nashville. SmileDirectClub’s reputation was wrongly sullied and its business unjustly harmed as a result of the NBC story according to the suit.

“The breadth of its misconduct is staggering,” the Company said in the 205-page lawsuit. “NBC misled its viewers and readers about the safety of the treatment that patients receive when using SDC’s platform, the involvement of licensed dentists and orthodontists in the treatment of patients when using SDC’s platform, and the benefits that patients receive when they are treated using SDC’s platform. Incredibly, nearly everything that NBC stated and implied about SDC in its broadcast and online report was factually inaccurate.”

The Company added, “Making matters worse, NBC knew it was not telling the truth to its viewers and readers.”

In the wake of NBC’s report, and as a direct result of it, SDC’s market cap plummeted by $950 million. As provided for by law, SmileDirectClub is seeking to recover treble damages pursuant to Tennessee’s Consumer Protection Act.

“SmileDirectClub gave NBC every opportunity to retract this defamatory report and correct the record voluntarily. NBC choose not to so. At that point, the company had no choice but to bring this lawsuit to defend its brand and the reputation of hundreds of doctors who are using SmileDirectClub’s telehealth platform to treat patients every day,” said J. Erik Connolly, Vice Chair of the Litigation Practice Group at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, and outside counsel for SmileDirectClub. “With this lawsuit, SmileDirectClub is not just holding NBC accountable for its misconduct, but it is also telling its affiliated doctors and shareholders that SmileDirectClub stands by their side and will fight to protect their interests and reputations.”