Ulysse Nardin, Inc. Sued For Deceptive And Unfair Trade Practices
Cohen & McMullen, P.A. Files Suit On Behalf Of South Florida Jewelers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Oct. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of jewelers with locations ranging from Miami to Palm Beach, Florida have sued Ulysse Nardin, Inc. ("UN") for a bevy of claims, including fraud and violations of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The suit also claims civil conspiracy against UN and Kering Americas, Inc., which acquired UN in 2014. In August of 2017, longtime UN CEO, Patrik Hoffmann, departed UN "for personal reasons."
"In all my years of representing commercial businesses across the country, I have never seen such a blatant disregard for ethical business practices by a publicly traded company," remarked one of the jewelers' attorneys, Bradford M. Cohen of Cohen & McMullen, P.A., who has represented many notable entities and individuals throughout his career, such as the Trump Organization, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and rapper Kodak Black.
The jewelers entered into agreements with UN, under which the jewelers were constrained to selling UN's products at certain suggested retail prices set by UN. In reliance on these agreements, the jewelers spent over three million dollars establishing and building out boutiques in which to sell UN watches and products. In the agreements, UN promised to support the jewelers' sales activities. Instead of supporting the jewelers' sales activities, as promised, UN suppressed their sales activities by allowing the same or similar UN products to become available elsewhere at lower prices. As the jewelers' suit states, "if the Jewelers offered a watch at a certain price based on UN's suggested retail price but another retailer offered the same, or a similar product, at a lower price, it is indisputable that consumers would prefer transacting for said product with the retailer offering the lower price. For that reason, the Jewelers, effectively, became advertisements to promote UN's products; as potential customers, by and large, would simply come in to the Jewelers' shops, which . . . were built out in reliance on the alleged Authorized Dealer Agreements with UN, and try on and find the UN products they liked, only to leave . . . and never return to the Jewelers because they found the same products elsewhere at lower prices." The jewelers' suit seeks damages in excess of eighteen million dollars.
"UN and Kering should be ashamed of their totally reprehensible behavior," adds Cohen.
The case is Palm Beach County Circuit Court case number 2017-CA-005699.
About Cohen & McMullen, P.A.: Cohen & McMullen, P.A. is a boutique law firm based out of Fort Lauderdale, FL, which specializes in complex litigation across a broad range of industries. The firm's managing partner, Bradford M. Cohen, who most recently successfully litigated a whistleblower claim against a publicly traded company, counts the Trump Organization, Corey Lewandowski, Kodak Black, DMX, Dennis Rodman, Udonis Haslem, Vanilla Ice and Scott Storch among his notable representations.
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