Is there any child who hasn’t been a part of Scholastic’s in-school book club, where you get their flyers order books and enjoy them? Well, it looks like it’s gotten bit out of hand as the children’s book publishing company has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit on the grounds that they “use its marketing presence within elementary schools to convince parents to purchase educational products, and then bombards parents with unsolicited goods, demanding payment in violation of state and federal law.” It’s hardly the first time Scholastic has been in trouble, having recently settled another lawsuit for $710,000.
The crux of the problem has to do with negative billing — you get a free item, they the company sends more stuff and a bill to follow while hiding opt-out clauses deep in the fine print. And when clients tried to cancel their membershipt, according to the suit, “they were harassed, deceived, intimidated, and threatened.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle by Nick Styant-Browne of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and Sim Osborn, managing partner of Osborn Machler, seeks to represent and to recover money lost for all those who received and were charged for unsolicited goods from Scholastic in the United States. More information is available, and a way to join in on the lawsuit, at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro’s website.