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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Brazilians accuse Westgate of illegal timeshare sales practices

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ORLANDO, Florida (Legal Newsline) - Three Brazilian citizens are suing an Orlando timeshare developer, alleging it deceives foreign-language speakers into purchasing timeshares.

Ricardo Beze Prates, Roxana M. Saade Diaz Granados, and Fernando de Andrade, individually and for all others similarly situated, filed a class action lawsuit Feb. 9 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Orlando Division against Westgate Resorts, alleging violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and its Vacation and Timeshare Plans Act.

The suit states Westgate sells timeshare interests for Westgate-branded timeshare resorts throughout Florida and the United States. The complaint says Westgate targets consumers whose native language is not English, providing these consumers with marketing materials written in the consumers' native language and conducting tours and sales presentations in the consumers' native tongue.

Then, the suit alleges, Westgate provides these consumers with sales contracts or sales-related disclosures written only in English, without providing accurate translations of these documents into the language used in marketing materials and sales presentations.

As a result, the lawsuit states, consumers whose native language is not English purchased a timeshare interest and signed a promissory note that they could not understand.

The plaintiffs and others in the class seek compensatory and punitive damages, plus attorney fees and litigation costs. They are represented by attorneys Michael D. Finn, J. Andrew Meyer and Patrick A. Kennedy of Finn Law Group in Largo, Florida.

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Orlando Division Case number 6:16-CV-00217-CEM-TBS

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