District Court Enters Consent Decree Against QVC for Third Party Representations; QVC to Pay $1.5M in a Civil Monetary Penalty and $6M in Consumer Redress

By John R. Fleder & Kurt R. Karst –

Last week, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entered a Consent Decree against giant home shopping retailer QVC, Inc.  The Consent Decree stems from a June 14, 2000 Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) decision and order in which the Commission ordered QVC to cease representing certain products in violation of the FTC Act.  This led to a March 2004 court complaint filed by the Department of Justice against QVC alleging that the company violated the June 2000 order by making false or unsubstantiated claims for several weight-loss products.  The 2009 Consent Decree slaps QVC with a civil monetary penalty of $1.5 million and consumer redress of $6.0 million.  In addition, the Consent Decree modifies the June 2000 order to add additional weight loss products.  Additional information on the FTC’s QVC docket is available here.