Online consignment site RealReal has filed a motion to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit which charges it with misrepresenting diamond carat weights, saying the weights on the site are listed as estimates.

According to the original complaint, filed Dec. 4 in Northern California federal court, plaintiff Gaby Basmadjian bought an 18k gold pavé 2.1 cts. t.w. diamond ring from the site in August 2017. A gemologist later told Basmadjian that the ring contained only 1.2 cts. t.w. in diamonds, the complaint said.

The RealReal’s motion to dismiss, filed Feb. 1, argued that the site’s “standard practice for all gemstone jewelry is the same; all product descriptions include the disclosures: ‘All gemstone weights and measurements are approximate.’

“There are no facts alleged in the Complaint that in any way suggest the difference between [The RealReal’s] estimate and Plaintiff’s gemologist’s estimate is a deliberate misrepresentation, as opposed to a simple mistake, the result of using a different methodology, or the difference between estimating the carat weight of dozens of tiny diamond chips while in their original mounting versus actually measuring each individual pavé diamond chip,” the site’s response said.

The response further asserted that the Federal Trade Commission’s Guides for the Jewelry Industry should not apply in this case, since they only cover “actual, not estimated, carat weights.”

The defendant’s motion also argued that the plaintiff lacks standing to launch the class-action suit since her complaint “does not identify any other piece of jewelry sold on the [The RealReal] website during the last four years that listed an incorrect carat weight for that item…even though [The RealReal] sold thousands of jewelry items, including rings, watches, bracelets, and necklaces, during that four-year period.”

Last month, The RealReal announced it would partner with University of Arizona on a new gemology PhD degree program.

Rob Bates

JCK News Director