In an agreement similar to the one recently reached with tech giant Apple, a cellphone and accessories retailer has agreed to change its sales practices and pay a $60,000 settlement with New Jersey to resolve claims that it violated consumer protection laws and regulations concerning the display of merchandise pricing and refund policies, the state Division of Consumer Affairs announced.

Attorney General Christopher Porrino and Sharon Joyce, the acting director of the DCA, on Oct. 12 announced the settlement with the retailer, Spring Communications, which operates 24 stores in the state.

The settlement with Spring Communications is similar to one the state entered into with tech giant Apple last month regarding its pricing information policies in its 12 New Jersey-based stores.

The DCA  alleged that Spring Communications failed to post the selling price for more than 1,000 merchandise items. In addition, the DCA alleged that the company failed to post its refund policy in eight of its stores.

Failing to post selling prices is a violation of the Merchandise Pricing Statute within the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, and failing to post refund policies is a violation of the Refund Policy Disclosure Act, the DCA said in a statement.

Among the types of merchandise Spring Communications sells are car chargers, cellphone cases, car dash ports, earbuds, selfie sticks and USB cables.

“The importance of displaying merchandise pricing and posting refund policies cannot be understated,” said Joyce in the statement.

Investigators from the division's Office of Consumer Protection visited the Spring Communications stores in March 2016.  A verified complaint and summary action was filed on June 15, 2017, in the Superior Court Chancery Division in Essex County.  The settlement is memorialized in a consent judgment which was filed on Sept. 26.

Spring Communications entered into the settlement without admitting any liability. In addition to the $60,000 payment, Spring Communications also agreed to not engage in any unfair or deceptive acts or practices, to not sell, attempt to sell or offer for sale merchandise without the total selling price being plainly marked by a stamp, tag, label or sign affixed to the merchandise or at the point where the merchandise is offered for sale, and to conspicuously post its refund policy in at least one of four required locations in its stores, the statement said.

In the Apple case, that settlement called for 4½-inch-by-3½-inch “pricing wedges” to be placed on each table where these devices are displayed for sale, to contain the total selling price. The pricing wedges will supplement Apple's existing in-store digital pricing system, which provides price information through apps and notifications that are launched from the devices themselves, Porrino said.

The division alleged that Apple's in-store digital pricing system violated the state's consumer protection laws because the pricing information was not continuously available for customers to view, making it necessary at times for customers to interact with a device or a sales representative to find how much the product costs.

OCP investigators found that while accessories and other items in Apple stores were marked with traditional price tags, the iPhones, iPods, iPads, iMacs, MacBooks and Apple Watches on display for customers to view and use were only priced digitally.

The New Jersey merchandise pricing statute, a part of the Consumer Fraud Act, requires prices to be plainly marked with a stamp, label or sign on or near the merchandise. The purpose of the law is to ensure that consumers know the price of an item as they look at it—and are not required to interact with the device or a sales representative.

During the inspections, the division also found that none of the Apple Stores in New Jersey was in compliance with the Refund Policy Disclosure Act, which requires that a retailer's refund policy be posted in at least one of the following locations: attached to the merchandise itself; attached to each cash register or point of sale, in a place where it is clearly visible to the buyer from the cash register; or posted at each store entrance used by the public.

Apple, which eliminated in-store cash registers years ago in favor of hand-held devices that allow employees to transact sales from anywhere in its stores, agreed to prominently display its refund policy on signs located at the public entrances to its stores, the statement said.

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