← Return to Archives - Subscribe to FREE NewsFetch Email Newsletter
From: lewis.perdue@wineindustryinsight.com

Subject: $12.6 Million Settlement Proposed in WTSO Wine Flash Site Deceptive Sales Lawsuit -- Implications for anyone selling wine online - WINE EXECUTIVE NEWS - September 27, 2017

Date: 2017-09-27 17:15:37

To: Emailing List Subscriber
Please use CMD+F (Mac) or CRTL+ F(Windows) to find your specific search term within this issue of NewsFetch. This "double search" is due to our links sourcing from websites not within WineIndustryInsight.
$12.6 Million Settlement Proposed in WTSO Wine Flash Site Deceptive Sales Lawsuit -- Implications for anyone selling wine online| September 27, 2017
You are receiving this email because you are a premium VIP subscriber to Wine Executive News Premium Member.

If you do not wish to receive this, please click the following link: >>>> [UNSUBSCRIBE] <<<<


Screen Shot 2016-11-28 at 1.38.22 PM

VIP Wine Executive News Member Briefing

The premium, VIP service of Wine Industry Insight

From editor & publisher, Lewis Perdue
September 27, 2017
In case you missed this in today's News Fetch email

$12.6 Million Settlement Proposed in WTSO Wine Flash Site Deceptive Sales Lawsuit

Implications for anyone selling wine online


Wines 'Til Sold Out (WTSO) is close to settling a class action lawsuit for $12.6 million in cash and consumer credits.  

A proposed settlement has been agreed upon by WTSO and a group of law firms who argued that the flash wine site's sales tactics were deceptive.  

The lawsuit was filed on March 15, 2016 in New Jersey U.S. District Court against the Ashburn Corporation of Pennsauken, NJ, which also operates under the dba, Roger Wilco liquor store. WTSO is an operation of Roger Wilco. Ashburn's CEO is Joe Arking.  

The defendant denies all wrongdoing. As part of the settlement, the attorneys involved have agreed to make no public comment.   According to the settlement:
"The Parties understand and acknowledge that this Agreement constitutes a compromise and settlement of disputed claims. No action taken by the Parties, either previously or in connection with the negotiations or proceedings connected with this Agreement, shall be deemed or construed to be an admission of the truth or falsity of any claims or defenses heretofore made or an acknowledgment or admission by any party of any fault, liability or wrongdoing of any kind whatsoever to any other party."
Jonathan H. Newman -- former head of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and the owner of a Philadelphia-area wine distributorship -- was also named in the complaint.

He was later dropped from the lawsuit because he has no ownership in WTSO or its associated companies. Newman, as noted in the lawsuit, wrote most of the glowing wine reviews for wines offered on WTSO, including wines his distributorship sold to the site.  

140 pages of the proposed settlement was submitted to the District Court on June 28, 2017. No further court action has been recorded on the court docket. This is not unusual because the certification of a class action settlement involves numerous, time-consuming steps. Those are described farther along in this article.

Suit accuses WTSO of misleading by using inflated "original" prices among other deceptions

 

Screen Shot 2017-09-26 at 2.05.00 PM
The image, above, was submitted in the class action complaint as an example of WTSO's misleading promotion. Premium subscribers, who log in with their accounts link (below), can view a sidebar article explaining the deceptive practices in the image, above.

  Wines & Vines published an article with details on the original accusations on Jan. 9, 2017. That article is at this link  

The original court filings are available to Wine Executive News Premium subscribers  

The remainder of this 1,519 word article along with court filings is available to Wine Executive News Premium Subscribers.

Also in this article (at Wine Executive News):

    • How are the proceeds from the class action to be split up?

    • Parsing the consumer awards and classes

    • These are the wines which qualify for the consumer credits award

    • The Class Action Certification Process

    • Full Court Filings (Premium subscriber access)

      • Original Class Action complaint

      • Joint Motion for Settlement Approval

      • Settlement Agreement

Premium Subscribers Log-In Here
   Not a Wine Executive News subscriber?

Subscribe to Wine Executive News now, and get the rest of this original article along with everything else on the site every day, including original documents, spreadsheets,and source materials for just $29.99 per month or $209 per year
New Subscriber Info

For those of you who read our free daily News Fetch email links, some of the following may be redundant.

However -- especially for new subscribers -- it's important to know that I don't send you a separate email every time an article contains premium content. That would be spamming ... especially for folks who read News Fetch every day.

This is because most Wine Executive News subscribers usually have subscribed to News Fetch prior to joining the premium content site.

When you sign up for premium, I always check to see if you are also getting the free News Fetch. If not, I sign you up so you will get the news quickly.

Where can you find premium content?

Every article that contains premium content will usually be the top link in the News Fetch unless some monumental news bumps it to #2.

Screen Shot 2016-11-28 at 4.29.49 PM
For your convenience and future reference, all of the News Fetch emails are automatically converted to web pages and can be found here: NewsFetch Newsletter Archives.

In addition, articles that contain premium content will also be in the "Features" category on the Wine Industry Insight web site:
Screen Shot 2016-11-28 at 4.24.57 PM


================= CONTACT DATA ====================
Lewis Perdue
670 W. Napa St., Suite H, Sonoma, CA 95476
Phone: 707-326-4503, fax: 707-940-4146
Email: lewis.perdue@wineindustryinsight.com