SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Kronenberger Rosenfeld, LLP, a San Francisco-based law firm, filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Coin, Inc. (“Coin”) received millions of dollars from consumers through a crowdfunding campaign for a product the company knew could never work as advertised. The lawsuit demands a trial by jury and seeks monetary damages against Coin for false advertising, misrepresentation and breach of contract.
The device at issue, called a “Coin,” is a thin, plastic, credit-card-shaped digital storage system with a magnetic stripe similar to that on a credit or debit card. It was advertised as a card consolidation device that would hold all of a consumer’s credit and debit card information in one card, so that a consumer would only need to carry “one card.”
The Coin device was marketed and sold to the public in what has been described as one of the most immediately successful crowdfunding campaigns ever. The campaign consisted of a single video entitled, “One Coin for All of Your Cards,” which promoted the Coin device as a solution for consumers who disliked carrying multiple cards in their wallets. The lawsuit alleges that the central message in Coin’s video was that the Coin device allowed consumers to carry just one card, and leave all their other cards at home. In addition to the video, this one card message was echoed in multiple press releases, other marketing efforts, and statements by the Coin CEO to the media.
The complaint alleges that after receiving their Coin devices, consumers discovered that the devices failed to work at terminals anywhere from 15 to more than 40 percent of the time, resulting in consumers having to carry their actual credit cards despite owning a Coin device.
The complaint also alleges that the Coin device’s security feature, which ostensibly alerted a consumer when their Coin device was out of range of their smart phone, failed to work properly as consumers were not alerted.
“Our complaint alleges that Coin knowingly marketed a product that it knew could not work the way they said it would,” said lead attorney Karl Kronenberger. “The complaint further alleges that Coin knew the statements in its crowdfunding video were false, but proceeded to line their pockets anyway, leaving consumers stuck with a device that does not work the way Coin promised.”
