Suit: Hollywood Tans didn't warn client
By MADELAINE VITALE Staff Writer, (609) 272-7218
Updated: Saturday, June 24, 2006
Attorneys for a Middlesex County woman have filed a lawsuit claiming she was not given adequate warnings by Hollywood Tanning Systems Inc. about the dangers of indoor tanning.
The suit charges the owner with “fraudulent, deceptive and otherwise improper business practices” by marketing indoor tanning to unsuspecting customers as a safe, healthy alternative to sunbathing.
Hadis Nafar was a monthly member of Hollywood Tans from April 2005 to May 2006. Her attorneys, David J. Meiselman, Jeffrey I. Carton and Lindsay M. Held, allege in the complaint that Nafar did not receive information or warnings concerning cancer or other health risks associated with indoor tanning.
Nafar also was not asked to sign any consent waiver relating to potential dangers.
Hollywood Tans is the biggest indoor tanning chain in the country with 300 stores, including one in Northfield, Atlantic County.
According to the lawsuit, the owner “knew that its misrepresentations and omissions of material fact about the safety of indoor tanning and its tanning services and machines were false and misleading.”
Nafar's attorneys, from the Meiselman Denlea law firm in New York, charge Hollywood Tans emphasized “the dubious claims of ‘tanning benefits' while failing to warn customers regarding the substantial risks o f ultraviolet exposure resulting from (Hollywood Tans') indoor tanning services and the link to skin cancer and that there is no such thing as a safe tan.”
The plaintiff is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, a refund of fees paid to Hollywood Tans and attorney costs in the lawsuit filed this week in Middlesex County Superior Court.
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