Fashion Nova Settlement: $2.4 Million Paid Over Suppressed Reviews

Who qualifies

• Payment required two things: you bought products from Fashion Nova before November 21, 2019, and you filed a valid claim before the August 15, 2023 deadline.
• Buying from Fashion Nova alone did not result in a payment. Unlike most FTC refund programs, this one required consumers to come forward.
• November 21, 2019 is the cutoff because that is when Fashion Nova stopped suppressing the lower-rated reviews the case was about.
• Claimants chose their payment method during the claims process and received that form in January 2025 — check or PayPal.
• Checks had to be cashed within 90 days of the date printed on them; PayPal payments had to be accepted within 30 days.
• The FTC states it distributed all available funds and is not accepting any new claims, so no late filing is possible.

The Fashion Nova settlement — what happened

1. 1

   How the reviews were hidden

   According to the FTC's complaint, Fashion Nova used a third-party online product review management interface that automatically posted four- and five-star reviews to its website while holding lower-starred reviews for the company's approval. From late 2015 until November 2019, Fashion Nova never approved or posted the hundreds of thousands of lower-starred, more negative reviews it received.

2. 2

   Why that matters to a shopper

   Suppressing a product's negative reviews deprives shoppers of useful information and artificially inflates the product's average star rating. The FTC alleged Fashion Nova misrepresented that the reviews on its website reflected the views of all purchasers who had submitted one, when in reality anything below four stars out of five was filtered out.

3. 3

   January 2022 — the $4.2 million settlement is announced

   Fashion Nova agreed to pay $4.2 million and to stop suppressing customer reviews. The Commission voted 4-0 to issue the proposed administrative complaint and accept the consent agreement, under FTC File No. 192-3138. The FTC described it as its first case involving a company's efforts to conceal negative customer reviews.

4. 4

   March 2022 — the order is finalized

   After the public comment period, the Commission finalized the order. Beyond the money, it prohibits Fashion Nova from misrepresenting any customer reviews or endorsements, and requires it to post all customer reviews of products it currently sells. The only permitted exceptions are reviews containing obscene, sexually explicit, racist, or unlawful content, and reviews unrelated to the product or to customer service matters like shipping and returns.

5. 5

   The FTC put the whole review industry on notice

   Alongside the settlement, the FTC sent letters to 10 companies offering review management services, warning them that avoiding the collection or publication of negative reviews violates the FTC Act. It also issued guidance for online retailers and review platforms on collecting and publishing customer reviews without misleading shoppers.

6. 6

   May 2023 to August 15, 2023 — the claims window

   The FTC announced a refund claims process for affected Fashion Nova customers. Claims had to be submitted by August 15, 2023. This is the step most people who search for this settlement today missed, because unlike most FTC refund programs it was not automatic.

7. 7

   January 2025 — 148,351 payments go out

   The FTC sent payments totaling nearly $2.4 million to people who bought from Fashion Nova before November 21, 2019 and had filed a valid claim. Each claimant received the payment type they had selected during the claims process.

8. 8

   Don't confuse this with the 2020 Fashion Nova case

   In April 2020 Fashion Nova agreed to pay $9.3 million over separate allegations that it failed to properly notify customers and offer them the chance to cancel when merchandise was not shipped on time, and that it illegally used gift cards to compensate customers for unshipped merchandise instead of giving refunds. That is a different case with a different fund. ClaimBee tracks these separately so you know which one you may have been part of.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and official records

Every figure and date on this page was taken from the primary records below — court dockets, agency releases, and the settlement administrator's own notices. Payout averages we describe as averages are calculated from the official totals, not reported per-person estimates.

• FTC — Fashion Nova Settlement refund page (148,351 payments, January 2025)
• FTC case record — In the Matter of Fashion Nova, LLC, File No. 192-3138
• FTC press release — the $4.2 million settlement over blocked negative reviews
• FTC press release — the refund claims process and its deadline