Legal Question in Consumer Law in Massachusetts

Consumer Fraud

I just purchased 3 cleaning products on the Internet. The 3 products have different names and purport to be for 3 problems. The amount for each item differed with 2 costing $19.95 and 1 costing $29.95.

When the bottles of cleaning solutions arrived I noticed they appear to be identical. The bottles are identical, the only difference being the stuck-on labels with the 3 different names. The contents in the see-through bottles look identical. There are no ingredients listed on any bottle.

I wrote an email asking the company if the products were in fact the same solution. I also asked them to send me the ingredients for each cleaner. They sent a response saying only, ''They are different products.''

I sent another letter indicating that I would still analyze the products (frankly, an empty threat at the time), and I received a letter full of legalese, citing laws, etc. and saying they were forwarding my letter to the FBI.

My question is this: Is there any way to analyze a product to detect fraud without breaking all those laws they cited in their email?

Thank you.


Asked on 7/20/07, 4:56 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Taylor Greene Taylor A. Greene, Attorney at Law

Re: Consumer Fraud

If you own the product, it is your property. You have complete control over how you dispose of your own property. If you damage someone else by what you do with your property, you can be called to pay.

Say for example, your property has a secret ingredient. Someone else owns the secret, and by rightful disposition of your property, you find it out. At this point, you have only exercised your rightful control over your own property. But if, using differnt property that you also own, you then make a duplicate of the secret ingredient and start selling the stuff, you have damaged the one who owns the secret, who can then make you pay.

Individual fraud claims, if proven, tend to have approximately the value of what the individual has lost. For this reason, states' attorneys general, rather than a private lawyer, tend to have better resources for investigating claims where it's a matter of getting your money back. Try http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=2432.

Then again, if it's a big company that's committed fraud against lots of people, a private lawyer can form a class action suit, if feasible.

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Answered on 7/21/07, 12:47 am


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