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Rent-A-Center sues Aaron's over ads

Says they are misleading and harmful

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 10, 2010

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court here, charges that Aaron's engaged in deceptive advertising in Texas and other states with ads that suggested RAC offers only a one-year warranty on certain big-screen televisions, compared with Aaron's two-year warranty - when RAC's actual warranty is for the duration of the rental agreement.

It also claims that Aaron's is misleading consumers in its ads by saying, "delivery and set up is always included," noting only in fine print that there is a charge for this service. Meanwhile, Plano, Texas-based RAC's delivery and set up actually is free, the company says.

"Making matters worse, (Aaron's) has made such false and/or misleading statements on its Web site, which could be viewed throughout the United States and, indeed, across the world," RAC said in the suit.

RAC said it sent a letter to Aaron's Tuesday objecting to the advertising materials, demanding that it immediately stop using RAC's service marks and discontinue publishing, disseminating and broadcasting the false and misleading representations.

It's asking the court to forbid Aaron's from continuing the practice and for a jury trail to decide unspecified damages.

Contacted by Furniture/Today, Mark Rudnick, vice president of marketing for Aaron's, declined to comment on the suit, noting that the company has not seen a copy of it yet.

Rent-A-Center and Aaron's are publicly traded giants in the RTO arena with more than 4,500 stores between them.

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