Canada's largest indoor tanning company has reached a settlement with the Federal Competition Bureau over allegations of misleading advertising.

Fabutan can now promote that tanning is a source of vitamin D and may have health benefits but it must make it clear that the benefits are not proven.

Last March the Competition Bureau ordered the Calgary based tanning chain to stop making false claims about the benefits of tanning beds.

Fabutan made statements that tanning was a treatment for vitamin D deficiency and helps seasonal affective disorder and weak metabolisms.

The Competition Bureau also challenged Fabutan's claim that tanning prevents or fights such diseases as cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis.

Fabutan president Doug McNabb said "It's a big win for us."

"We can state that it has been shown and proven that vitamin D is produced as a result of a tanning session and then talk about the associative health benefits of vitamin D."

The company can continue to cite studies that link vitamin D with the prevention and treatment of several diseases but it must be clear to indicate that the studies are not conclusive or proven.

But the company is acknowledging that ultraviolet exposure does not stimulate the thyroid and improve metabolism, as it had

previously stated.

McNabb acknowledged the information turned out to be inaccurate.

The company will post a corrective notice on its website, pay a $62,500 administrative fee and donate $12,500 to charity.

Dr. Reinhold Vieth, an expert in the benefits of vitamin D

was an expert witness for Fabutan.

"There were obviously some things (like the thyroid claims) that might've been total nonsense but I would say three quarters of what (the company) said was scientifically correct," he said.

Some dermatologists are worried the Fabutan decision is sending the wrong message.

Doctor Derek Woolner in Calgary says there is a red herring here.

"If we accept what the tanning parlours are telling us, that their light bulbs emit something called ultraviolet A, my first message would be, it's ultraviolet B that makes vitamin d in human skin."

Health Canada has said UV exposure can be hazardous to a person's health and in the long term can contribute to premature aging and skin cancer.