Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Lingerie Brand Accused Of False Advertising
(Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
Bella Breakdown
Rihanna’s lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty, lands in hot water over false advertising claims from a non-profit watchdog group known as Truth In Advertising (TINA). TINA filed a complaint against the singer’s lingerie brand with the Federal Trade Commission accusing Savage X Fenty of practicing “deceptive marketing.”
TINA claims that Savage X Fenty advertises discounts but don’t disclose that the discounts technically apply only to their monthly VIP subscription for $50. According to the complaint filed by TINA, “It deceptively promotes discounts and product prices that are only available to consumers who are bound to the company’s membership program without clearly and conspicuously disclosing this fact in its marketing materials.”
Savage X Fenty claims customers get a 50% VIP discount added to their cart automatically on their website but clarify in the fine print the discount is only for customers who sign up for the monthly subscription. The complaint also alleges that the company enrolls customers into a “negative option offer” called Xtra VIP Membership without disclosing the terms and conditions of enrollment such as letting customers know they need to take affirmative action every month to avoid recurring charges.
When you go shopping on the Savage X Fenty website pushes you towards the membership and they display the reduced prices as normal prices but once you go to the item page you can see the two prices for regular and VIP members.
A representative of Savage X Fenty responded to the complaint saying the company believes in complete transparency and that they provide several disclosures of the membership through the ads, ambassador engagement policies, and shopping experience. TINA has previously launched a complaint to Savage X Fenty’s parent company TechStyle (better known for their former name JustFab) for deceptive marketing practices.
In 2014 JustFab settled the lawsuit for $1.8 million with the court ruling that the company has prohibited the use of “negative option offer” which is what TINA is accusing Savage X Fenty of doing. You can also see the correlation of these issues with the negative reviews on the Savage X Fenty and JustFab Better Business Bureau pages.
Both pages have good BBB ratings but the reviews are full of customers complaining about the terrible customer service with generic generated responses from customer service that is similar on both pages. So if you think of buying from Savage X Fenty, think twice and thoroughly read through the disclaimers.
