Suzanne Somers Advances Antitrust Claims

QVC must face fraud and antitrust claims by actress Suzanne Somers, who claims the at-home shopping company used catch-and-kill tactics to favor another dietary supplement over hers, a Philadelphia federal judge ruled.

The lawsuit accuses QVC of agreeing to sell supplements made by Somers’ company SLC Sweet, then finding pretexts to reject purchase orders because it had an exclusive deal with an SLC competitor.

Somers, the former star of the TV sitcoms “Three’s Company” and “Step By Step,” filed the case in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Originally, actress Suzanne Somers filed suit against QVC alleging it lured her into a deal as an attempt to remove her from the dietary supplement business and market its own supplement brands. 

According to the civil action filed October 15 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Suzanne Somers and SLC Sweet alleged breach of contract, violation of the Uniform Commercial Code, California’s Business and Professions Code, promissory estoppel, intentional interference with contractual relations, and violations of the Sherman Act against QVC.

The plaintiffs claim they were lured away from selling their products through the home shopping retailer Evine and asked to enter into a form purchase order agreement with QVC – all while a merger between QVC and HSN appeared to already be in the works. The suit states HSN already had a dietary supplement brand partner, Andrew Lessman.

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