Belle Gibson told to apologise for lies

Victoria's consumer affairs regulator wants Belle Gibson to take out a newspaper ad apologising for lying about curing her terminal cancer.

The watchdog says the disgraced health blogger engaged in "unconscionable conduct" by claiming she was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2009 and given four months to live before taking and rejecting conventional treatments to heal herself naturally.

Consumer Affairs Victoria has taken Federal Court action, alleging Gibson also engaged in misleading or deceptive commerce by making the claims to promote her Whole Pantry app and book.

It wants her to pay a fine and publish in newspapers an apology acknowledging her lies and advising cancer patients to seek advice from medical professionals, according to court documents released on Friday.

The Whole Pantry app was available for purchase between August 2013 and May 2016, the documents show.

By March 2015, it had been downloaded 115,324 times from iTunes.

Gibson's company was paid $263,947 by Penguin for her The Whole Pantry book, released in October 2014 and withdrawn from sale five months later.