A lawsuit, seeking class action status, has been filed against Knoxville-based Jewelry Television, a home-shopping network. The lawsuit alleges that Jewelry Television knowingly sold treated gemstones as though they were "extremely rare" and "all natural."
The complaint, filed on behalf of potentially thousands of customers who purchased the questionable gemstones, claims that Jewelry Television engaged in "unfair and deceptive conduct" when it sold a gem called andesine-labradorite as being a "highly-coveted, extremely rare, all natural, expensive gem that looks like an Oregon sunstone."
The complaint further claims the stones were "nothing more than the mass-produced result of chemical facelifts in gemological beauty parlors" that Jewelry Television acquired for "pennies per carat and sold for extraordinary profits." Jewelry Television sold the gemstones for $149 per carat in December 2007 and later, after discovering one of its sources for the gemstone that treated the stone, offered customers return period which was characterized by the plaintiff as "not publicized or advertised, was ill-administered, and did not even begin to correct the harm that was done."
