From
The HollyWood Reporter:
A company that sells props and replicas of costumes from hit sci-fi franchises including Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica is being sued for fraud — along with the studios who gave the company permission to create the products — for allegedly not fulfilling presale orders.
A Louisiana man named Richard Dalton says he paid Anovos more than $40,000 for merchandise but never received it, according to a complaint filed Monday in California federal court. The items he ordered include a Star Trek Spock replica blue tunic, a Star Wars: The Force Awakens Kylo Ren costume with helmet and a $9,000 buildable replica of a starship.
More than three years after his first purchase, having never received his products, Dalton read an explanation on the company's website. It said when products experienced production delays, some customers would cancel orders and fewer pre-orders led to an increase in the price of the raw materials and per-unit cost as well as cancellation of items that failed to meet the factory's minimums.
"Despite Anovos’ inability to fulfill the hundreds, if not thousands of pre-paid orders customers have already submitted, Anovos continues to market and sell pre-order items on its website and on social media in the same manner: requiring full upfront costs of the items in addition to shipping," writes attorney Joshua Swigart in the complaint, adding that the company in April instituted an "all sales are final" policy.
Disney, NBCUniversal and CBS are also defendants in Dalton's class action complaint, which estimates total damages will exceed $5 million. Dalton says the studios permitted Anovos to defraud consumers by renewing their licensing agreements with the companies.
The proposed class is currently defined as: "All consumers who paid for a pre-order product(s) from Anovos and licensed by Disney, NBCU, and/or CBS, and who have not received the product nor a refund from January 1, 2016, through the present."
Read the full complaint here.
