The RealReal, Inc. is facing a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the luxury consignment retailer intentionally overstates gemstone weights on jewelry sold on their website in order to charge higher prices.
RealReal’s luxury consignment website, TheRealReal.com, allows individuals to sell and purchase luxury items available on consignment to and from millions of users worldwide. According to the complaint, after RealReal receives an item, the company’s team of “experts” authenticate, price, and sell the items the consigner wishes to sell.
But plaintiff Gaby Basmadjian, who filed the RealReal inflated gemstone weight class action lawsuit Monday in California federal court, says she was duped after purchasing a 18K pave diamond cocktail ring from TheRealReal.com in August 2017. Basmadjian purchased the ring for $982.62 based in part on the representation that the ring contained 2.10 carats of round brilliant diamonds.
After receiving the ring, which was not returnable, Basmadjian had the ring inspected to measure the total weight of the diamonds. Through detailed measurements performed by a gemologist, the ring was found to contain approximately 1.2 carats of diamonds – a discrepancy of nearly 0.9 carats or 75 percent!
According the Federal Trade Commission, diamond weights are to be accurate to the last decimal point, and by inflating gemstone weight, The RealReal is in violation of FTC rules, as well as other state and federal laws regarding unfair and deceptive business practices.
Additionally, Basmadjian contends that there was no indication on the description that the carat weight was approximated, prompting her to assert that RealReal purposely inflated the total weight of the gemstones knowing the average consumer, like herself, would have no way to know that the weights were inflated.
“By overstating the weight of the gemstones in RealReal’s jewelry, Defendant charged Plaintiffs and the Class a higher price than should have been charged. As a direct result of this higher price, Plaintiff and members of the Class paid a higher price for the jewelry than they should have paid.”
As such, the RealReal lawsuit contends Basmadjian and the proposed class are entitled to recover the difference between what they paid for RealReal’s jewelry and what the jewelry would have been priced at with the correct gemstone weight. For example, if a consumer paid $500 per carat for the gemstones in the jewelry and the weight of the gemstones was 3 carats and was overstated by 10 percent, then the consumer should be refunded $140.
The lawsuit seeks to certify a nationwide class of consumers who after December 1, 2013, purchased from TheRealReal one or more pieces of jewelry where the weight of gemstones indicated on the product label exceeded the actual weight of the gemstones in the jewelry by more than 1/100 of a carat (1 point, 2mg).
Basmadjian and the proposed class are represented by Keith Altman and Solomon Radner of Excolo Law PLLC and Ari Kresch of 1-800-LAW-FIRM.
The RealReal Inflated Gemstone Weight Class Action Lawsuit is Gaby Basmadjian, et al. v. The RealReal Inc., Case No. 3:17-cv-06910, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.