Columbus Class Action Lawyers Discuss Lawsuits Over Improper Sales Practices
Improper sales practices include many illegal and dishonest practices, but each results in cheating a customer or client. Stores, websites, insurance companies, other law firms, repair shops, building contractors, and wholesalers can all engage in behaviors that violate laws and professional standards developed to protect consumers, but holding them accountable and receiving reimbursement and compensation is usually difficult. Victims of improper sales practices need to show both that the seller or service provider perpetrated a fraud and that the specific action caused a loss of money, property, or well being. The last categories of harm can include a physical injury or death, loss of a job, onset of mental and emotional distress, and loss of trust from other people.
One of the keys to succeeding in winning a civil lawsuit over improper sales practices is understanding how the provisions of federal laws such as the False Claims Act and the Consumer Credit Protection Act, as well as Ohio statutes like the Motor Vehicle Collision Repair Operators Act and the Consumer Sales Practices Act, apply to particular situations. For this reason, Buckeye State residents and small businesses who are taken advantage of by fraudulent sales techniques increase their chances of succeeding by working closely with experienced Leist Warner consumer fraud attorneys in Columbus, Ohio. Our attorneys have helped individuals and small businesses in cases ranging from helping consumers get back millions of dollars for overpayments, helping small businesses get relief for defective software, to complex cases involving improper sales of hybrid structured investment vehicles.
Do Not Fall Prey to Frequently Used Improper Sales Practices
Companies, contractors, agents, and salespeople have hundreds of ways to swindle and intimidate purchasers. A few of the more frequent practices that put businesses and individuals on the wrong side of the law and liable to criminal charges and civil lawsuits are:
- Bait and switch, which is providing a good or service different from what was requested.
- Bid rigging, which usually involves contractors making illegal arrangements with government agencies and departments.
- Bribery, providing financial and other inducements to choose particular products, services, or suppliers.
- Charging for unrequested or undelivered goods and services, such as requiring a customer to buy an extended warranty in order to receive a discount on a computer or television.
- Collusion, a form of price fixing in which companies or contractors that sell the same products agree to minimum and maximum charges.
- Counterfeiting.
- Lying about value, price, and/or effectiveness, including advertising sales, but not stocking low-cost items and charging premium prices for generic items.
- Lying about the need for a product or service, such as a car repair or home improvement.
- Mislabeling products, including making false claims about the active ingredients in over-the-counter drugs and guaranteeing that taking a dietary supplement will produce weight loss.
- Price fixing, broader than collusion, price fixing can extend back to wholesalers and manufacturers and forward to customers.
- Selling dangerous and defective products, which applies when the person or organization making a sale knows or should have known that purchasers would be put at risk for suffering losses of money, health, or well-being.
- Threats and pressure, especially when it comes to services or products such as insurance policies that directly impact a purchaser’s health and livelihood.
Make Dishonest Businesses and Salespeople Pay
Companies and individuals that engage in improper sales practices rarely do so just once. Because you are often just one of many victims who overpaid for something you did not want, got coerced into buying a product or service you did not need, or suffered because bribes or collusion occurred, contact the Columbus class action lawsuit attorneys at Leist Warner after you discover you have been cheated. We may be able to help you receive repayment, get injunctions and secure monetary damages. Succeeding in an improper sales practices case also means companies, contractors, and service providers have fewer opportunities to take advantage of customers moving forward. You can reach us by calling (614) 222-1000 or completing this web form.
