Now, in a stinging penalties decision, it has ordered that Ms Sheffield and Homeopathy Plus!, or its agents, must not make similar claims for the next five years and will be fined $115,000 and $23,000 respectively. Ms Sheffield will also be forced to pay the ACCC's costs from the case.

However, evidence-based medicine advocates say there is still far too little protection for consumers and patients from false claims made about alternative treatments.

Ken Harvey, anadjunct associate professor at the School of Public Health at La Trobe University, first complained about Ms Sheffield's misinformation in 2009; leading to the federal Therapeutic Goods Administration then "requesting" she retract it.

This and other requests from federal authorities were repeatedly ignored until an official order was issued, which was also ignored. In 2012, the ACCC was able to get her to remove the claims, but only temporarily.

"I'm disappointed with the time this case has taken and that the retraction asked for by both the CRP and the TGA failed to materialise," Associate Professor Harvey said. "In my view, serious misleading and deceptive medical information needs correction and I believe that enforcing the publication of a retraction on the home page of the offending website for a number of months is important."