Seal Skin Accused Of Running “Fake” Discounts To Drive Sales

Case Overview: A California shopper filed a lawsuit accusing Seal Skin of using fake sales and inflated discounts to pressure customers into purchases.

Consumers Affected: Shoppers who bought discounted products from Seal Skin’s website believing the sales were temporary.

Court: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

A company that sells protective covers for cars, boats, and motorcycles out of seal skin is facing a proposed class action lawsuit accusing it of building its business on phony discounts. 

Seal Skin, which operates the website sealskincovers.com, is accused of violating California advertising laws by advertising perpetual sales that, according to the lawsuit, were never real to begin with.

For years Seal Skin has marketed nearly all of its products as heavily discounted, often 40% to 55% off, using strikethrough “regular” prices that the company almost never actually charged, the lawsuit claims. 

Shoppers, it says, were led to believe they were getting limited-time deals, when in reality the products were consistently sold at the so-called sale price.

Consumer Says Seal Skin’s “Limited-Time” Sales Never Ended

Joanne Cattani, a resident of La Mesa in San Diego County, filed the lawsuit after she says she was misled while shopping for a car cover on Seal Skin’s website in October 2024. While browsing, she saw that every product appeared to be on sale, complete with strikethrough prices and bold percentage-off savings.

One car cover she viewed was advertised for $169.99, down from a purported regular price of $369.99, a discount of more than 50%. According to the lawsuit, those pricing claims created urgency and convinced her she needed to buy quickly before the price jumped back up. She completed the purchase believing she was getting a rare bargain on a higher-value product.

An investigation cited in the complaint alleges that Seal Skin had been advertising that same car cover at essentially the same “sale” price for years, and that the higher reference price was never a genuine regular price. 

Had she known the truth, Cattani says she would not have bought the product or would have paid less.

Website Allegedly Inflated Prices To Create Illusion Of Savings

Seal Skin’s marketing strategy relies on nonstop sale messaging, the lawsuit claims. Its website allegedly displays permanent “50% off” banners, discounted prices on every product listing, and percentage-off labels designed to signal urgency. 

The complaint says those discounts were so ingrained that “50% Off” language was embedded directly into webpage titles that appear in Google search results.

Cattani’s attorneys say their investigation, using archived webpages and automated tracking of the site, found that Seal Skin products were never offered at the advertised reference prices, not even briefly. Instead, the same discounted prices appeared day after day, sometimes for years at a time. 

That practice, the lawsuit claims, falsely inflates the perceived value of the products and pressures consumers into buying under the impression they’re getting a special deal.

Online Retailers Increasingly Targeted For Misleading Promotions

Seal Skin is far from alone in facing this type of legal challenge, with a number of other brands recently accused of running endless promotions disguised as limited-time offers. Hoodie brand 

Comfrt was just sued over alleged fake sales, while jewelry company Kendra Scott, clothing retailer Hollister, home improvement giant Lowe’s, and mattress brand Puffy have all faced lawsuits accusing them of inflating list prices to create the illusion of steep discounts.

In her lawsuit, Cattani is asking to represent California consumers who bought discounted products from Seal Skin’s website. The lawsuit seeks damages, restitution and disgorgement of profits, along with a court order requiring Seal Skin to stop advertising allegedly fake discounts. It alleges violations of the state’s advertising and consumer protection laws.

Case Details

• Lawsuit: Cattani v. Elite Era LLC and Seal Skin Cover LLC
• Case Number: 3:25-cv-03581-BAS-KSC
• Court: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California 

Plaintiffs' Attorney

• Daniel M. Hattis and Paul Karl Lukacs (Hattis Lukacs & Corrington)

Have you ever rushed to buy something online because a countdown sale made it feel like now or never? Let us know in the comments below!