LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – The company that sells as-seen-on-TV products is confusing customers into buying more than they want, a new class action lawsuit says.
The Clarkson Law Firm sued Ontel Products in Los Angeles federal court on Sept. 4, claiming the company has “pioneered a new bait-and-switch’ scheme.”
That alleged scheme tricks consumers who buy a product at a low price to pay more for additional units of it at an extra cost.
“In each and every instance of the Products’ ecommerce websites, Defendant uses ambiguous and confusing language to describe the terms of promotional offers, which tricks consumers into inadvertently placing orders for a greater quantity of Products than they intend,” the lawsuit says.
“Defendant fails to provide consumers with an opportunity to confirm or edit their order at the end of the ordering process to ensure its accuracy, thereby failing to obtain consumers’ informed consent to the charges.”
For example, the lawsuit says Ontel’s websites have options to double orders preselected.