SEATTLE — Allure Esthetic and Dr. Javad Sajan must pay $5 million as a result of Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s consumer protection lawsuit. Allure and Sajan threatened patients with illegal non-disclosure agreements and falsified online reviews to inflate the plastic surgeon’s reputation.
The consent decree resolves a lawsuit Ferguson filed against Allure in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington for numerous violations of state and federal laws. It requires Allure to pay approximately $1.5 million in restitution to approximately 21,000 Washingtonians. Consumers will receive a letter from the Attorney General with a check, either for $50 or $120 depending on the individual’s circumstances.
Allure is also required to remove any misleading or false information about the plastic surgery practice from its website, including fake positive reviews and altered before and after photographs, among other significant reforms to its business practices.
The resolution comes less than three months after U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ruled that Allure’s non-disclosure agreements illegally restricted patients from posting negative reviews about the business.
“Writing a truthful review about a business should not subject you to threats or intimidation,” Ferguson said. “Consumers rely on reviews when determining who to trust, especially services that affect their health and safety. This resolution holds Allure accountable for brazenly violating that trust — and the law — and ensures the clinic stops its harmful conduct. We will take action against any business that attempts to silence and intimidate honest Washingtonians.”
Ferguson filed the lawsuit in December 2022. It accused Allure of artificially and illegally inflating its ratings on online platforms such as Yelp and Google by posting fake positive reviews while suppressing honest accounts of consumers’ negative experiences. The company forced patients to sign illegal non-disclosure agreements to intimidate patients into removing truthful reviews — or not posting them at all. Allure also ordered its employees to post fake positive reviews.
In fact, after filing the lawsuit, the Attorney General’s Office uncovered evidence Sajan himself emailed fake reviews to a foreign contractor to post in exchange for payment.
Allure also rigged “best doctor” competitions hosted by local media outlets by paying staff and contractors to vote for Sajan as best plastic surgeon in the region. They cast as many votes as websites would allow, despite not being patients of Allure.
Allure also deceived potential patients by editing before and after photos to make the results of procedures appear better than they actually were. Moreover, Allure applied for and kept tens of thousands of dollars in rebates that were intended for its patients.
The lawsuit alleged that Allure’s deceptive conduct violated the state Consumer Protection Act (CPA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA), a federal law that protects consumers’ rights to post truthful reviews about a business. The federal court previously ruled that Allure’s NDAs violated the CRFA.
Today’s resolution requires Allure to pay $5 million, approximately $1.5 million of which will go to affected consumers. The rest will go to the Attorney General’s Office for its attorneys’ fees and costs of investigating and litigating the case, future monitoring and enforcement of the consent decree, and future enforcement of consumer protection laws. Allure also must:
- Stop posting or influencing consumer reviews, perform a full audit of all public reviews on Google, Yelp, WebMD and other third-party review platforms, and request removal of every review Allure was involved in creating, posting or shaping in any manner;
- Remove all misleading before and after photographs of plastic surgery procedures from its website and social media and stop altering photographs of future procedures;
- Cease use of and attempts to enforce all illegal NDAs and notify patients who previously signed them that they are released from the terms of those NDAs;
- Pay a third-party forensic accounting firm to perform a full, independent audit of Allure’s consumer rebate program to identify consumers who are owed rebates that were unlawfully claimed by Allure; and
- Provide the Attorney General’s Office, upon request, information that demonstrates compliance with the terms of the consent decree for the next 10 years.
Patients who were forced to sign the illegal NDAs will each receive $50. Patients who paid a non-refundable consultation fee before they were forced to sign the illegal NDA will each receive $120 — a refund for the fee, plus interest.
Allure will send a letter from the Attorney General’s Office to all affected consumers along with restitution checks. The business will also send a separate letter to consumers whose rebates were unlawfully claimed by Allure, notifying them that they are receiving rebates as a result of the Attorney General’s lawsuit. The amount of the rebates will be determined by an audit, but the office estimates it may result in an additional $50,000 to several hundred consumers.
Assistant Attorneys General Matt Geyman, Camille McDorman, Zorba Leslie, Alex Kory, Bret Finkelstein, Ben Brysacz and Rabi Lahiri, Investigator Victoria Suner, and Paralegals Miranda Marti and Christopher Kiefer handled the case for the Attorney General’s Office.
Allure prominently displayed artificially inflated ratings
Prior to Ferguson’s lawsuit, Allure’s website prominently displayed its “5-star” Google and Yelp ratings and the claim that Sajan was “Ranked #1 Plastic Surgeon in Seattle.” Ferguson’s investigation revealed how Allure’s deceptive practices artificially inflated those ratings and the surgeon’s top ranking.
Starting in 2017, Allure required patients to sign a non-disclosure agreement that required them to contact the business if they had any concerns instead of posting a “negative review.” The NDAs were included in pre-procedure paperwork, meaning patients signed before receiving any services. The agreement required patients to “not say anything” that would “damage the reputation” of the office. It stated that Allure considered anything under four stars a “negative review.” If patients posted and failed to take down a negative review, Allure’s “pre-service” NDA required them to “pay monetary damages to the practice for any losses.”
In many cases, patients learned they had to sign this illegal non-disclosure agreement only after paying Allure a nonrefundable $100 consultation fee. Allure used these pre-service NDAs until March 2022.
In April 2024, the federal court ruled that Allure’s pre-service NDAs violated a federal law that protects consumers’ rights to post truthful reviews about a business.
Those weren’t the only illegal NDAs used by Allure.
When patients disregarded the first illegal NDA and posted negative reviews, Allure would offer them money and free services to “make it right” if they took down the review. If they accepted the offer, Allure required them to sign another NDA, threatening a $250,000 penalty if they posted any negative reviews in the future.
If you see any business trying to suppress or restrict online reviews, or any other potentially deceptive business practices, report it to the Attorney General’s Office by filing a complaint at atg.wa.gov/file-complaint.
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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.