Low-cost airline Breeze Airways is adding two new routes to Florida this fall, adding to its robust service to the Sunshine State.
25.08.2023 - 13:54 / skift.com / Srividya Kalyanaraman
Timeshares are a contentious topic in vacation hospitality. Some of the biggest and publicly traded companies have often been censured or ruled against for not upholding consumer protection laws by using deceptive sales tactics.
In yet another attempt to bring transparency to timeshare, a Florida-based law firm plans to file a lawsuit seeking class action status against the top timeshare resorts including Travel + Leisure Co. (Formerly Wyndham), Holiday Inn Club, Hilton Grand Vacations, Marriott, and Westgate.
The Timeshare Law Firm was established in 2004 to exclusively litigate against timeshare companies that violate consumer laws that were specifically designed by government regulators to protect timeshare purchasers at the time of sale and before they sign a contract.
“People don’t even realize that their rights were violated. They were unlawfully denied government warnings and advisories, mandated by laws that they never even knew existed,” said John Abrams, the lead attorney at The Timeshare Law Firm in a statement.
Timeshare resort companies are prone to heavy litigation for allegedly deceiving consumers and violating consumer protection laws for failing to disclose to prospective buyers that timeshares are not a good investment, are not an appreciating “asset,” that they’re hard to sell, and that oral promises made by sales reps and managers are not to be relied upon.
In October last year, a superior court jury in New Jersey ruled against Atlantic City timeshare company FantaSea Resorts in favor of consumers deceived by the company, awarding the plaintiffs over $1 million verdict for FantaSea Resorts’ intentionally deceptive sales practices.
In this case, FantaSea Resorts admitted to committing multiple violations throughout the sales process by failing to inform buyers of required legal disclosures and withholding important documents that revealed details about the timeshare until after the buyer had signed a purchase and sale agreement.
And in June last year, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office filed a civil suit against a group of St. Louis County-based timeshare exit companies, who promise to get customers out of onerous timeshare contracts for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in fees. The defendant companies in question were already involved in a federal fraud case involving millions in pandemic relief money.
Abrams said to expect the first action in Orlando in the next few weeks, followed by similar filings in Tennessee and Nevada.
“We’re swift and to the point,” Abrams told Skift. “We’re filing a lot of cases and each one of those can have multiple actions covering perhaps thousands of people in each jurisdiction, all the defendants involved in the case are the same
Low-cost airline Breeze Airways is adding two new routes to Florida this fall, adding to its robust service to the Sunshine State.
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Timesharing, as a concept, was conceived in Europe in the 1960s. There, it was originally presented as a contractual lodging arrangement featuring the right to make reservations in multiple properties owned by the offeror or even by third parties. The first timeshare in the United States was started in 1974 by Caribbean International Corporation (CIC), based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It offered what it called a 25-year vacation license rather than ownership. The company owned two other resorts the vacation license holder could alternate their vacation weeks with: one in St. Croix and one in St. Thomas; both in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands properties began their timeshare sales in 1973.
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