SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — A $13 “Disney Princess” jewelry kit left the mother of a 6-year-old girl unhappy when it was found to be half-empty.
Now a New Jersey company that marketed the kit in California will find its wallet $250,000 lighter.
The company must pay $225,000 in costs and penalties for distributing deceptively packaged jewelry-making kits marketed to California children, city and county officials announced Thursday.
City Attorney Jan Goldsmith and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis filed a consumer protection case with the San Diego Superior Court against Horizon Group USA Inc. of Warren, NJ, after the City Attorney’s Office received a complaint from a woman who bought the “Disney Princess” kit for her daughter, 6, later to find that half the package was empty.
Stickers covered empty compartments and only those filled were visible.
“I can’t even imagine the disappointment of … probably a young lady who picks up one of these things expecting to have a full box of beads and things to play with, and really the fact of the matter is they're just getting gypped,” Dumanis said.
More than 16,000 of the $13 kits were delivered to California Target, Walmart, Toys “R” Us and Michaels stores and were sold online.
They have been taken off the market, said Assistant City Attorney Tricia Pummill.
The city attorney’s Consumer & Environmental Unit investigated the complaint then joined with the District Attorney’s Office for action.
“It’s our responsibility to protect consumers and this was misleading, aimed at children and its not going to happen in San Diego, or for that matter California,” Goldsmith said.
Prosecutors alleged in the civil complaint that the kits “were packaged in containers that were constructed or filled as to facilitate the perpetration of fraud, in violation of state consumer protection laws.”
Horizon cooperated with prosecutors and stipulated to the entry of a judgment without admitting wrongdoing. Judge Judith F. Hayes signed a stipulated final judgment that required the company to pay $225,000 in costs and penalties and prohibits similar future violations within the state.
Disney was not part of the case.
Dumanis said the judgment was a warning that companies “will be held accountable for deceptive business practices that violate the law.”
Deputy District Attorney Tom Papageorge said consumer fraud was preventable by a well-educated populace.
He advised consumers to do research to make sure a product was not too good to be true, ask a salesperson what was included in the package and ask about return policies.
A Better Business Bureau website gave Horizon Group an A-plus rating.
The site said: “BBB has determined that Horizon Group USA Inc. meets BBB accreditation standards, which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. BBB Accredited Businesses pay a fee for accreditation review/monitoring and for support of BBB services to the public.”
—City News Service contributed to this report.
Cereal is sold by weight not volume what else is new just blame everything on Obama people need to start using their own minds and smarting up President Obama inherited all this BS he did make it worse by bailing out the auto industry but he did save a hell of a lot of jobs and they paid back their loans The banks made this mess and soon as they got the bail out money the top jack azz's got their millions in bonus's which was not suppose to happen The President should have let the banks all fail President Bush is the one who deregulated the banks and he is the reason gas is so high not the current president christinedahll it is not just people that are older than 50 it is everyone companies are taking advantage of everyone
Right. The list of what is included appears to be there. They screwed up packaging the contents in a larger than needed container. Should have included in the description that they were giving you a larger box to give you extra storage space and then it would be impossible to argue that people were getting ripped off. There were over 16,000 delivered so I'm sure there have been 100's or more already sold and 1 person complains out of all the people that have bought them because they can't read what the contents are and can't count to see they really got everything. Then leave it to a bankrupt corrupt California to sue and get money that they keep and the supposed wronged consumers get nothing and then one more struggling company ends up sooner or later going out of business. This is just 1 small example of what is destroying this country. Sueing by everyone and anyone to make a quick buck destroying people and businesses in the process. Now you've got state gov. getting in on it. Why in the world do they deserve $250,000 when the dumb ass lady probably would've been happy getting a refund even though she got what she paid for in the first place. Unbelievable!
God bless the legal system to take the appropriate and effective action against such deception and intolerable heinous greed. True Faith Minister.
OH, this from a republican, and really what do people have against the oil companies ?? remember this is a capitalist society and they did pay billions in taxes last year and the year before & before that while others like GE paid none, moving to china and giving them technology that will allow them to go into competion with American Airplane Manufactors, Yep and Auto industries not far behind.
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