Marketer Of Snuggies, Perfect Brownie Pans, Others Must Pay $8M For Allegedly Deceiving Consumers

The marketer of popular “as-seen-on-TV” products such as Snuggies, Magic Mesh door covers and Perfect Brownie Pans must pay $8 million to resolve federal and state charges it deceived consumers with promises of buy-one-get-one-free promotions and then charged exorbitant fees for processing and handling, nearly doubling the cost of the products.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that Allstar Marketing Group, LLC, agreed to pay $7.5 million to the agency for restitution to consumers and $500,000 to the New York Attorney General’s Office for allegedly deceiving consumers about the cost of its products marketed through commercials.

According to the FTC complaint [PDF], since at least 1999, New York-based Allstar deceived consumers by failing to disclose additional fees associated with its frequent buy-one-get-one-free offers used to sell products such as Cat’s Meow, Roto Punch, Perfect Tortilla, Forever Comfy.

The FTC cites a recent commercial for the Magic Mesh door cover in which the narrator claims the company will “double the offer, just pay separate processing and handling fees.” The commercial goes on to describe the purchase as “two Magic Mesh curtains for $19,95, that’s less than $10 each.”

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