elgato
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 17240
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:57 am Post subject: Overstock.com Litigation Roundup: Fraud Suit Setback |
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In our latest installment of the news from Overstock.com's (OSTK) myriad lawsuits, we have new chapters worthy of a Perils of Pauline episode from the silent movie days. Overstock lost a hotly contested effort to withhold information from California prosecutors in a consumer fraud suit, and a devastating revelation emerged in a libel suit against Overstock's mercurial CEO Patrick Byrne.
In the fraud suit, which was brought by criminal authorities from throughout California, Overstock had been fighting tooth and nail against efforts by the district attorneys to probe its pricing practices.
The California criminal authorities charge that Overstock set false comparison prices, thereby misleading customers of the website about discounts that weren't really discounts at all. If Overstock's "low prices" aren't really low, the company isn't acting very nice to consumers, is it?
The information that was sought by the prosecutors was fairly routine: data on Overstock's "methodology" for determining comparable prices. The judge hearing the case indicated in November that he was likely to rule against the company. In a ruling handed down on Tuesday, he made it official. I've uploaded a copy of the judge's decision here.
What this means is that Overstock is going to have to fork over all kinds of information that it obviously wanted to keep from the California prosecutors. Damned if I know why. Maybe because it didn't make the company look very good?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/334762-overstock-com-litigation-roundup-fraud-suit-setback-a-tale-of-two-nazeralis |
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