Fashion Nova Class Action Lawsuits Allege Company Removed Negative Reviews From Site (2024)

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Fashion Nova Negative Reviews Class Action Overview:

• Who: Two Fashion Nova customers are suing the online fashion retailer in near-twin lawsuits.
• Why: The customers allege Fashion Nova blocked negative product reviews from its website, artificially inflating the value of the clothes and accessories it sells.
• Where: The lawsuits were filed in New Jersey and Michigan federal courts.

Popular online retailer Fashion Nova has been hit with two class action lawsuits alleging it hides one, two and three-star reviews from its website to artificially inflate the prices of its products.

The news comes just months after the retailer agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle similar allegations of dishonest trading brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

In January 2022, the FTC found that Fashion Nova had been suppressing lower-starred consumer reviews throughout its website from 2015 to 2019.

Plaintiffs Kerry Hines and Tanisha DiVito filed class action lawsuits against Fashion Nova, LLC on Apr. 18 in New Jersey and Michigan federal courts, respectively, alleging violations of their states’ consumer laws.

The women allege that Fashion Nova misled consumers by blocking the negative or low product reviews from its website.

“Fashion Nova, an almost exclusively online retailer, has made millions of dollars selling clothing, apparel, accessories and more on its website, fashionnova.com,” DiVito states. “Taking advantage of the fact that prospective consumers rely on fellow consumers’ reviews prior to making an online purchase, Defendant intentionally suppressed Lower-Starred Reviews for all Products on its website.”

Fashion Nova Automatically Approved Some Reviews, Blocked Others, Class Actions Allege

The complaints allege that Fashion Nova installed a “third-party online product review management interface” that allowed it to automatically post reviews based upon their star ratings while holding lower-starred reviews for client approval prior to posting.

From 2015 through mid-November 2019, Fashion Nova chose to have four- and five-star reviews automatically post to the website but did not approve or publish hundreds of thousands of lower-starred, more negative reviews, the lawsuits state.

Citing a report from business-to-consumer messaging and payments company Podium, Hines’ class action points out that consumers generally will not even consider a product unless it has a minimum average star-rating of 3.4 stars.

Based on Fashion Nova’s alleged suppression activities, four stars would be the lowest average star rating for any product on its website, according to the lawsuit.

Hines, who bought shirts, dresses, jeans and skirts on the company’s website between February and November 2018, relied on those products’ “highly rated consumer reviews” before making her purchases, the suit says.

Meanwhile, DiVito purchased a jacket, sweater and jeans from Fashion Nova’s website in December 2018.

She says she reviewed and relied on the highly rated consumer reviews prior to purchasing the products, and had Fashion Nova not suppressed the lower-starred reviews of the products, she would not have purchased them or would have paid substantially less for them.

Hines is seeking to represent a class of New Jersey residents who bought an item from Fashion Nova’s website in the state between Mar. 23, 2016, and Dec. 25, 2018, according to the suit. DiVito is seeking to represent a class of New Jersey residents who bought an item from Fashion Nova’s website in the same time period.

The women are seeking certification of the class action lawsuits, damages, restitution, fees, costs and jury trials.

Meanwhile, last year, Fashion Nova customers received a second round of refunds from the FTC after the retailer allegedly failed to ship merchandise in a timely fashion, properly notify customers and offer customers the option to cancel orders. It also illegally issued gift cards rather than refunds as compensation for unshipped merchandise.

Have you bought products from the Fashion Nova website? Let us know your experience in the comments!

Hines and DiVito are represented by Philip L. Fraietta, Max S. Roberts, L. Timothy Fisher and Rachel L. Miller of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Fashion Nova Blocked Reviews Class Action Lawsuits are Kerry Hines v. Fashion Nova LLC, Case No. 2:22-cv-02241, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, and Tanisha DiVito v. Fashion Nova LLC, Case No. 2:22-cv-10822-MFL-JJCG, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

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