Florida's attorney general has sued a New Jersey corporation and its owner, alleging that the company created fictitious florist listings and named them so as to lead consumers to believe that the companies were located in Florida cities and towns.
Florist in Miami Inc. and company owner Thomas Meola face more than 150 violations of Florida's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act for misleading Florida consumers though deceptive advertisements.
"Consumers are entitled to know with whom they are doing business, and companies who deliberately attempt to conceal their true identity or location have no business operating in our state," said Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Meola, of Randolph, N.J., placed telephone listings for the fictitious companies, including Florida's Florist in Jacksonville TTP and Florida's Florist in Orange Park TTP, encouraging consumers to believe they were conducting business with local florists, a release from McCollum's office said. Each "local" business had telephone numbers with local area codes, although the numbers were all automatically forwarded to Meola's New Jersey company, and at no time during transactions with Meola's company were consumers informed that their calls had been forwarded from Florida to the New Jersey company, the release said.
In addition to the misleading company names and listings, consumers also complained they had been billed for flowers which were ordered but never delivered.
