The seller has established business in California.
This is a case that my friend is currently having trouble with.
I have a friend name Jenny, who sells rare italian handbags over the internet in Korea.
She found a bag from an US website that she would like to sell it in Korea.
Since the shop (let's just call it Pake shop) did not ship the products overseas, Jenny ended up asking her friend Chris in Chigago to purchase the bag for her and bring it to Korea. Then Chris, in Chicago, called the Pake shop, in California, and asked the shop owner about the authenticity and was confirmed that it was an authentic italian hand bag as they advertised on the internet. Thus Chris paid about $1100 to the Pake shop and purchased the bag. Then Chris brought it back to Jenny on his next trip to Korea.
Jenny immediately sold the bag on her website for $1200. At this point, Jenny was more interested in advertising her shop, thus she really didn't leave much margin on this sales. Her website (which is temporary closed for the renovation at this moment) had a legal statement saying that "any non-authentic items sold from this site will be compensated the twice of the amount paid to purchase." for a good faith purpose. A customer named Allison purchased the bag for $1200 in January 2005.
About 6 months after, Allison contacted Jenny and told her that the bag Jenny sold might not be authentic.
Jenny, with her experties in handbags, doubted that she sold a fake bag to Allison, but she thought of a possibility that the Pake bag shop might have sold her a very intricate imitation of that certain bag.
One of the reasons that they couldn't seek for a authenticity verification help was that there was no official dealer of the bag in Korea at the time of Alison's purchase. Finally, the official dealer of that hand bag brand opened up in Korea this summer. Allison then compared her bag with the ones that they sell at the official dealer. Then Allison, comparing the bag she purchased from Jenny with the authentic ones, started to suspect that the bag she bought was a fake. Now she wants Jenny to compensate for the sale of fake bag by paying twice of the amount she paid, as Jenny promised on her website: twice of $1200, and plus the compensation for emotional distress.
Jenny, out of a good faith, decided to refund Allison plus the double gurantee. At this point, Jenny is not sure if Allison can really ask for emotional distress compensation, thus she's rulling that one out.
Now, it is Jenny's turn to be compensated for all the damages from the Pake Bag Shop. Can Jenny sue the Pake bag shop in US? Can Jenny sue Pake bag shop for the amount Allison is charging Jenny for compensation? What regulation is the basis of the rational in this case? (I did some search and suspected that FTC maybe the case.) Chris already confirmed that the creditcard company (used to make payment for the bag) will refund the amount for the bag. Yet Jenny is still liable to pay Allison for the authenticity gurantee penalty. So is there a chance for Jenny to recover the penalty she's paying to Allison from Pake bag shop?
Is there a reasonable way of recovering $1200 without spending more on legal fees? Thank you for your advice.
This is a case that my friend is currently having trouble with.
I have a friend name Jenny, who sells rare italian handbags over the internet in Korea.
She found a bag from an US website that she would like to sell it in Korea.
Since the shop (let's just call it Pake shop) did not ship the products overseas, Jenny ended up asking her friend Chris in Chigago to purchase the bag for her and bring it to Korea. Then Chris, in Chicago, called the Pake shop, in California, and asked the shop owner about the authenticity and was confirmed that it was an authentic italian hand bag as they advertised on the internet. Thus Chris paid about $1100 to the Pake shop and purchased the bag. Then Chris brought it back to Jenny on his next trip to Korea.
Jenny immediately sold the bag on her website for $1200. At this point, Jenny was more interested in advertising her shop, thus she really didn't leave much margin on this sales. Her website (which is temporary closed for the renovation at this moment) had a legal statement saying that "any non-authentic items sold from this site will be compensated the twice of the amount paid to purchase." for a good faith purpose. A customer named Allison purchased the bag for $1200 in January 2005.
About 6 months after, Allison contacted Jenny and told her that the bag Jenny sold might not be authentic.
Jenny, with her experties in handbags, doubted that she sold a fake bag to Allison, but she thought of a possibility that the Pake bag shop might have sold her a very intricate imitation of that certain bag.
One of the reasons that they couldn't seek for a authenticity verification help was that there was no official dealer of the bag in Korea at the time of Alison's purchase. Finally, the official dealer of that hand bag brand opened up in Korea this summer. Allison then compared her bag with the ones that they sell at the official dealer. Then Allison, comparing the bag she purchased from Jenny with the authentic ones, started to suspect that the bag she bought was a fake. Now she wants Jenny to compensate for the sale of fake bag by paying twice of the amount she paid, as Jenny promised on her website: twice of $1200, and plus the compensation for emotional distress.
Jenny, out of a good faith, decided to refund Allison plus the double gurantee. At this point, Jenny is not sure if Allison can really ask for emotional distress compensation, thus she's rulling that one out.
Now, it is Jenny's turn to be compensated for all the damages from the Pake Bag Shop. Can Jenny sue the Pake bag shop in US? Can Jenny sue Pake bag shop for the amount Allison is charging Jenny for compensation? What regulation is the basis of the rational in this case? (I did some search and suspected that FTC maybe the case.) Chris already confirmed that the creditcard company (used to make payment for the bag) will refund the amount for the bag. Yet Jenny is still liable to pay Allison for the authenticity gurantee penalty. So is there a chance for Jenny to recover the penalty she's paying to Allison from Pake bag shop?
Is there a reasonable way of recovering $1200 without spending more on legal fees? Thank you for your advice.