Paparazzi “lead & nickel free” class-action filed in Nth Carolina
Five Paparazzi customers in North Carolina have filed a class-action against the MLM company.
Central to the lawsuit are alleged misrepresentations regarding toxic metals in Paparazzi jewelry.
BehindMLM covered the finding of toxic metals in Paparazzi jewelry earlier this year.
Crack the Crown’s discovery, which was verified by testing, was brought on by Paparazzi to dropping its “lead & nickel free” marketing claim.
Surprisingly, in the wake of the discovery and past and potential consumer harm, no regulatory action has been lodged against Paparazzi. Whether the MLM company is under regulatory investigation is unknown.
Plaintiffs Crystal Johnson, Nancy Kebort, Karen Langston, Pamela Sheehan-Peterson and Leslie Ann Williams, represent themselves to be Paparazzi customers.
The NC Plaintiffs claim to have independently tested purchased Paparazzi jewelry, which
revealed (it) contain(ed) lead and nickel, in contradiction to Paparazzi’s express claims that its Products were lead and nickel free.
The NC Plaintiffs allege the claim was “a central tenet of Paparazzi’s marketing and sales strategy.”
Paparazzi consumers were told to “feel glamorous, not guilty” because Paparazzi’s Products were lead and nickel free.
Due to consumers “lack(ing) the ability to ascertain the true contents of Paparazzi’s products prior to purchase”, NC Plaintiffs claim they
must and do rely on Paparazzi to accurately and honestly disclose the materials in its products.
This is especially true for materials such as lead and nickel.
Plaintiffs contend that it was only after independent testing, commissioned by consumers, that Paparazzi “stopped representing that its Products are lead and nickel free.”
Paparazzi scrubbed its website of its express claims that its Products are lead and nickel free on or about December 2021 or early 2022, just after reports began circulating online that Paparazzi’s Products indeed contain lead and nickel.
Paparazzi knows that wearing accessories containing nickel is undesirable to many consumers because these materials can trigger adverse effects, such as allergic reactions and skin discoloration.
Consumers also seek to avoid purchasing jewelry containing lead due to the toxic nature of the metal.
And that brings us to the crux of the North Carolina class-action;
Paparazzi made its “lead and nickel free” claims a central part of its marketing message to consumers in order to misleadingly create the impression that its Products are safer and of a higher level of quality than they are in reality.
If Paparazzi disclosed to consumers, including Plaintiffs and proposed Class Members, that its Products contained lead and nickel, these consumers would not have purchased the Products at all, or they would not have paid the price they did.
Customers reasonably relied on and believed Paparazzi’s false statements.
In addition to purchasing the Products for their personal use, customers, including Plaintiffs, purchased and gave the Products as gifts to children, family and friends.
Now, confronted with the truth about Paparazzi’s Products, that they indeed contain lead and nickel, these customers now feel guilty about exposing their loved ones to the risk of suffering the adverse effects associated with these materials.
As a result of Defendant Paparazzi’s misconduct, false statements, misrepresentations and material omissions, Plaintiffs and proposed Class Members have suffered injury in fact, including economic damages.
NC Plaintiffs peg alleged damages at over five million dollars.
Interestingly, without identifying NC Plaintiffs as Paparazzi distributors or not, the complaint refers to Paparazzi’s compensation structure as a pyramid.
The pyramid of positions starts with the position “consultant” and continues as follows: star consultant, director, premier director, executive director, producer, premier producer, executive producer, fashionista, a-lister, maven a-lister, jetsetter, luxe jetsetter, and impressionista.
As a person recruits more individuals below them, who recruit more individuals below them, and so on, the higher the person’s income potential.
This was brought up in connection with Paparazzi ” controls every aspect of the Products’ marketing”.
Paparazzi’s business structure ensures that its lead and nickel-free marketing communication strategy is adopted and followed by its consultants.
In order to entice consultants to move up the ladder and reach higher levels of compensation, Paparazzi lionizes its top consultants and encourages other consultants to emulate their sales practices.
By elevating its top consultants, Paparazzi not only achieves higher revenue but also ensures that their marketing messages, including the lead and nickel free claim, are repeated by other consultants.
Therefore, Paparazzi controls every aspect of the Products’ marketing: by controlling how consultants are educated, requiring consultants to repeat Paparazzi’s marketing messages, showcasing top consultants and their marketing strategies, and by structuring their business so that hierarchical “teams” develop with consistent marketing claims.
Relying on this marketing message, NC Plaintiffs claim, saw each of them purchase Paparazzi products for a number of years. The longest purchase period cited is nine years (2013 to 2022).
One particularly disturbing aspect to Paparazzi’s alleged deception is the targeting of children.
Paparazzi’s statements and omissions are especially material to parents and other customers who purchased Paparazzi’s children’s line of products, marketed as the Starlet Shimmer collection.
The Starlet Shimmer collection was designed and marketed by Paparazzi to appeal to young children.
Children who wore Paparazzi’s Starlet Shimmer Products were unnecessarily put at risk of suffering the above-described adverse effects, as well as serious risk to their health.
Nickel and lead pose even more harm if children mouth, chew or swallow these materials.
One thing the NC class-action goes hard in on is Paparazzi and Paparazzi corporate knowing and concealing they were selling tainted product.
At all relevant times, Defendant knew the true nature of the materials contained in the Products, but nevertheless marketed, advertised and sold the Products without disclosing this material information in an effort to persuade consumers that they were, in fact, buying Products that were free of lead and nickel.
This is based on Paparazzi corporate’s involvement in the design and manufacturing process.
Defendant knows what materials are in its Products.
In addition to testing its Products, Paparazzi’s founders boast that they engage in “hands-on leadership” of the company, and that they “individually design and source materials for Paparazzi products while working directly with manufacturing partners.”
Proving this beyond statements would of course be key to the case. Or at least negligence and intent on Paparazzi’s behalf.
In filing their class-action, NC Plaintiffs seek to represent Paparazzi customers across the US
who purchased any of Paparazzi’s Products in the United States for personal use and not for resale.
This would appear to include Paparazzi distributors, provided they bought any of the company’s products for personal use.
Certification of a smaller Subclass for North Carolina Paparazzi customers is also sought.
Plaintiffs will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the proposed Class Members.
They have no interests antagonistic to those of the proposed Class Members.
Plaintiffs retained attorneys experienced in the prosecution of class actions, including, inter alia, consumer products, misrepresentation, and mislabeling class actions, and Plaintiffs intend to prosecute this action vigorously.
Specific causes of action raised against Paparazzi include:
- breach of express warranty;
- breach of implied warranty;
- violation of the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act;
- negligent misrepresentation;
- unjust enrichment; and
- violation of NC Gen Stat Sec. 25-2-313, North Carolina’s Breach of Express Warranty Statute
The North Carolina Paparazzi class-action complaint was filed on April 29th.
This was two days after the New York class-action, alleging similar damages.
At this stage I’m assuming if a class-action prevails the other (possibly others if more are filed), will be combined.
One final note I’ll make is the New York class-action complaint referenced Paparazzi’s response to independent testing:
In a statement attributed to Paparazzi’s founders and corporate offices dated December 22, 2021, Paparazzi admitted its jewelry “may contain trace amounts of lead and nickel”.
I couldn’t find a source for that claim and, as far as I could tell, the complaint didn’t cite one.
The North Carolina complaint makes a similar claim;
In an effort to allay customers’ concerns about the adverse effects they may suffer from wearing its Products and mitigate the harm to its sales and reputation, Paparazzi now represents that “some [of its] jewelry may contain trace amounts of lead and nickel” and that “[t]he metals found in Paparazzi jewelry pieces are primarily made of iron and include other trace minerals.
Those trace minerals are made up of a metallic alloy of either zinc, steel, or aluminum.”
This statement is attributed to a late 2021 email, sent out by Paparazzi corporate:
I believe this might be the same communication the New York complaint references. I hadn’t seen it before either way.
Looking forward, on May 2nd the North Carolina class-action was “selected for mediation”. This hasn’t gone well for MLM class-actions in the past.
Stay tuned for updates on both Paparazzi toxic metals class-action lawsuits.
Update 7th July 2022 – On June 24th Paparazzi filed a motion requesting the North Carolina class-action be transferred to Utah.
Class-action Plaintiffs consented to the transfer, which the court approved on July 1st.
Not only did I quit selling paparazzi jewelry as soon as I found out that they have been lying to us but I was very hurt when one of my friends passed away from going to the convention from Covid!
Article updated to note case transfer from North Carolina to Utah.
Where do I join the lawsuit?
These are very early on class-actions. Whether any of the proposed classes will be approved or not is playing out.
So I should just wait and see if there will be one?
Pretty much. There’s a lot of class-actions in play at the moment. They’re likely to be consolidated in Utah.
If that survives the inevitable motion to dismiss, then the case will proceed towards class-certification.
Standard play for MLM companies is to separate Plaintiffs and get individual settlements. Wait and see for now though.
Thank you. As a consultant that stood by the nickel and lead free, that was the entire selling point of my business. I just seen this tonight and I’m crushed after investing over 18k into my business in the last 18 months
Bonnie Brewer May 1, 2022
I was enticed to join the multi level marketing company, Paparazzi LLC, through claims on social media by current company representatives and the company’s own website posting that showed people making money selling $5 jewelry that was advertised as nickel and lead free.
Because I am sensitive to nickel in products, I was thrilled to have a reasonably priced product to offer to my friends and family that had no nickel and lead in it, according to the company.
The company’s statements that the jewelry is nickel and lead free is false and misleading, as proven by the lab results, which materially defrauds both consumers and potential business competitors.
The company had absolutely NO income disclosure statement when I joined in 2017 and the one that the company issued in 2020 does NOT disclose how people make money in that company.
The company representatives that I saw posted “lifestyle” posts showing piles of cash, new cars, new homes, etc, with the social media hashtag “because of Paparazzi” (see attached photos of social media posts).
While the company’s website says that you can make 45% commission on sales of products, the statements I saw all said “making fortunes $5 at a time”, inferring that they make $5 on sales….this is just not true.
Even the company’s claim of 45% commission is not true, as any costs of selling products such as website fees, postage, shipping materials, etc. are never included in this calculation.
No overhead costs are included in the income disclosure statements, artificially inflating the potential profit that can be made on each piece of jewelry.
Even the company’s motto of “changing the world $5 at a time” is deceptive, since no one makes $5 on the sale of a piece of their wholesale inventory.
In addition, Paparazzi’s income disclosure statement is deceptive as it only shows income earned by recruiting other consultants whereby earning 10% of THEIR purchases. IT DOES NOT TRACK INCOME FROM PERSONAL SALES, despite the fact that they claim your make your money from selling the product.
They do not even track personal product sales. In point of practice, more than 75% of the jewelry sold by Paparazzi LLC is sold to CONSULTANTS and NOT to consumers, so the consultants are the actual target customer of the company.
Instead of helping you MAKE income, they are collecting money from you and doing nothing to help you sell the product to any other customer besides the consultants themselves.
The company provides absolutely NO business training and constantly pressures consultants to buy inventory on a daily basis (whether or not they have a customer need or request) as it is touted as “limited” quantities that will “never be released again”.
The limited quantities and constant pressure to purchase the product creates an environment where the consultant is the final customer.
This is deceptive and misleading. This is further proven by the corporate policy that one consultant can NEVER sell the product at wholesale to another consultant or they will be “cancelled” as an independent contractor.
I have included the Paparazzi Policy & Procedure Manual here to prove their restrictive oversight.
Consultants MUST pay full retail price for Paparazzi’s product if purchased from any venue OTHER than the company, further showing that the consultant is actually Paparazzi’s target customer.
Paparazzi goes so far as to FORBID consultants and even former consultants from selling their product for less than the fixed market price of $5, threatening legal action.
Paparazzi fixes prices. Consultants have no option to adjust their price to reflect market need or interest and they are constantly barraged with pressure to purchase more and more directly from the company.
Consultants are also incentivized with contests and competitions endorsed by the corporate oversight group to require minimum wholesale purchase activity to participate. Sales of products to end user are NEVER tracked.
The income disclosure statement is based on commissions earned when you recruit other consultants into the business and they then purchase inventory, whether or not they ever sell it and see a profit.
Once you join, it is made VERY clear to you that the way you make money in Paparazzi is to RECRUIT. You make a commission by recruiting new consultants and then encouraging them to recruit even MORE consultants.
Consultants are constantly on social media doing “opportunity lives” where they promise all of the business support and resources your need to “make money like me”.
I have included some of the consultant created “training” materials with this letter as an attachment.
Paparazzi LLC’s income Disclosure Statement, in conjunction with their corporate and independent consultant marketing, does NOT reflect how little money there actually is to be made selling their jewelry that is actually full of nickel and lead (attached find lab testing reflecting false advertising).
I have 20K at least in Inventory, I WANT MY MONEY BACK FROM THIS FRAUD COMPANY!! So Yes I want In On The Law Suit.