iCanvas, iCanvasArt Facing Lawsuit Over Alleged Use of False Reference Prices Online

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A proposed class action claims the company behind iCanvas.com and iCanvasArt.com has misled consumers by listing products online with artificially inflated original prices and corresponding illusory discounts.

Have you bought posters, canvas art, frames or other products on sale at iCanvas.com or iCanvasArt.com? Let us know here.

The 37-page lawsuit says that Kroto, Inc.—the retailer behind the online custom wall art and décor websites—advertises fake reference prices to fool shoppers into thinking they are getting a discount on an item with a higher market value than it actually has. However, in truth, the apparent discounts are merely “phantom markdowns,” as the websites’ products are continuously on sale and never offered at the advertised original price, the suit alleges.

On the landing pages of iCanvas.com and iCanvasArt.com, all items are represented as marked down by a specific percentage, the case shares. In addition, on individual listings, a product is advertised with a sale price next to a crossed-out original price, falsely implying that the item was previously sold at this “strikethrough” price, the complaint contends.

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According to the filing, the online retailer also imparts on shoppers a false sense of urgency by promoting limited time offers that supposedly “End[] Today!” or “End[] Soon!,” and by displaying timers that count down to a sale’s expiration.

“In truth, when one sale expires, another sale is promptly instituted,” the lawsuit claims. “This cycle continues over and over.”

For example, a 30-percent-off sitewide sale that purportedly ended on January 23, 2023 was “immediately replaced” by a similar markdown that lasted from February to September of this year, the suit relays.

Per the case, the Federal Trade Commission Act requires a product’s advertised original price to have been in regular use by the retailer and for a significant amount of time before a discount of the item is considered bona fide. Federal law also prohibits sellers from “[making] a ‘limited’ offer which, in fact, is not limited,” the complaint says.

The filing charges that, as a result of the company’s misleading practices, “consumers are deceived into spending money they otherwise would not have spent, purchasing items they would not have purchased, and/or spending more money for an item than they otherwise would have absent deceptive marketing.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in California who purchased one or more products from iCanvas.com or iCanvasArt.com at a discount from a higher reference price during the applicable statute of limitations period.

Have you bought posters, canvas art, frames or other products on sale at iCanvas.com or iCanvasArt.com? Let us know here.