Ganz Sued Over Webkinz Sales Terms
Playthings Staff -- Kids Today, 7/17/2008 12:10:00 PM
Nuts For Candy, a California retailer, filed a class-action lawsuit against vendor Ganz USA and its Canadian parent firm, alleging that the conditions the company sets for stocking its popular Webkinz plush line violate U.S. antitrust laws.
The Burlingame, CA sole proprietorship's suit argues that Ganz’s policy of requiring retailers to order $1,000 worth of its non-Webkinz “core” line in order to apply to become a Webkinz plush seller, with no guarantee of becoming an authorized Webkinz retailer — violates the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.
The suit claims Ganz’s policy causes “monetary injury” to retailers, and argues that the company “succeeded in making it more difficult for Plaintiff and Class members to sell products that compete with Webkinz and/or the [core] Ganz products by forcing Plaintiff to stock limited retail shelf space with unwanted products, reducing Plaintiff’s ability to sell competing products.”
The suit’s class is open to all persons or entities in the U.S. who established an account with Ganz from July 1, 2006, onwards.
Nuts For Candy is seeking a jury trial under the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It is requesting damages for all class members “threefold their actual antitrust damages sustained,” along with “reasonable” attorneys’ fees and costs, and pre- and post-judgment interest. The retailer is being represented by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, Burlingame, CA.
A Ganz spokesperson told Playthings, sister publication to Kids Today, that the company had no comment on the suit.
I am one of the Class representatives in a lawsuit against Ganz regarding their practices surrounding Webkinz and core product purchases. if you have any questions about this or Ganz's business practices, you can contact my attorney at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.
Matt Edling 650-697-6000
John Kevranian - 2009-03-03 23:42:00 EST
Matt Edling 650-697-6000
My Story is a little different. I opened an account with Ganz in 2001. When the webkinz craze started I was told that only current customers could purchase webkinz. When I was never recieving them I was told you had to have purchase at least $500 to $1000. of the every day products. Which was not a problem...I had purchased that much over the year. I then started seeing them at the Limited Too, BJ Wholesale and 7/11 convinent store. My rep stated that they were bought from the black market and we will shut them down. Yeah,right! Then I was told the stores were being rated Gold and Silver based on the past year buying dollars and the gold would ship first. If they would have just sold to the small retailer and not been so greedy the small retailers would have plenty of stock. Oh, DisneyWorld stores have thousand of Webkinz. I have stopped buying Ganz for almost two years. Trends do not last forever.
Beth Price - 2008-08-17 23:48:00 EDT
This nation is so LITIGIOUS it is pathetic. If GANZ is doing something wrong than they should be given the opportunity to fix it. They have provided kids worldwide with one of the best toys ever and is a company that will do the right thing.
Webkinz FAN - 2008-07-31 22:19:00 EDT
I am very much interested in joining your class action law suit. You can call me M-F 10-5 770 425-4545
Joyce Sullivan - 2008-07-31 21:06:00 EDT
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