Class Action Lawsuit Claims Shapermint Advertises Fake Discounts Online

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges the company behind Shapermint.com has misled consumers by listing products on its online store with fake “regular” prices and corresponding false discounts, giving the impression of savings.

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The 30-page lawsuit says that defendant Favorite World, LLC, which sells women’s undergarments, swimwear and shapewear through Shapermint.com, frequently promotes discounts of up to 70 percent off its purported “regular” prices and prominently displays a timer that counts down to the latest offer’s expiration. However, the suit claims the apparent discounts are meant to mislead shoppers, as the company’s products are continuously on sale and never offered at the original price advertised in strikethrough font.

In addition, the limited-time sale events are hardly time-barred, the case contends, arguing that the offers do not end even when the countdown clock runs out.

“Instead, they are immediately replaced by a different sale offering comparable discounts or [Shapermint] simply restart[s] the timer and begin[s] the countdown to a false end date,” the complaint charges.

The filing asserts that once a sale has run for more than 90 days, Shapermint merely retitles the offer in connection with a different theme, holiday or season, with each allegedly separate sale proceeding “immediately into the next.”

According to the lawsuit, Shapermint’s conduct has violated two California laws that prohibit companies from advertising purported former prices that were not the products’ “prevailing market prices” within the preceding three months.

Moreover, the suit takes issue with the website’s use of a “fake” timer at checkout that says it reserves a shopper’s order for 59 minutes.

The case contests that the checkout timer is “just another ruse, like the fake limited sales it advertises, which seeks to manipulate consumers into finalizing a purchase without second guessing, comparison shopping, or considering any of [Shapermint’s] hidden terms and conditions, any of which might dissuade consumers from completing the purchase.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who, while in California, purchased one or more products advertised at a discount on Shapermint.com at any time in the past four years.

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