The RealReal is being sued.
A lawsuit filed in federal court allegest that The RealReal, a luxury consignment company, overstated the weights of gemstones sold on its website.
Plaintiff Gaby Basmadjian claims that RealReal “systematically inflated the total weights of small uncertificated gemstones knowing that the average consumer would have no way to know that the weights were inflated.”
Basmadjian is a Novi, MI, resident who bought a ring for $982.62. “based in part on the representation that the ring contained 2.10 carats of diamonds,” according to the lawsuit. It’s described in the filing as an 18-karat gold cocktail ring featuring round brilliant diamonds.
Basmadjian later had the ring evaluated by a gemologist, who found that it contained only 1.2 carats of diamonds, according to the suit. CBS News first reported on the case.
She is seeking class-action status for the litigation, with the class to include people in the U.S. who, after Dec. 1, 2013, bought jewelry from RealReal “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.”
Basmadjian is asking that she and other customers be award the difference between what they paid for RealReal’s jewelry and “what the jewelry would have been priced at with the correct gemstone weight.”
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San Francisco-based RealReal touts itself as being “the leader in authenticated luxury consignment with a certified expert inspecting every single item.” The company said in June it had closed a $50 million growth equity financing from private equity firm Great Hill Partners, bringing its total funding to $173 million.
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