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On Thursday, Dec. 9, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed a lawsuit against Aspen Dental alleging the dental chain cheated thousands of Massachusetts consumers through a series of bait and switch advertising campaigns.
The complaint alleges that Aspen Dental violated the state Consumer Protection Law and the assurances Aspen Dental made to the AG’s Office in a 2014 settlement addressing similar conduct.
According to the AG’s lawsuit, Aspen Dental engaged in numerous deceptive advertising and marketing practices—including charging patients for services it advertised as “free” and not living up to “guarantees” it advertised—as well as other deceptive practices in its interactions with consumers.
“Aspen Dental took advantage of vulnerable consumers in need of dental care and used misleading advertising to lure them into their offices under false pretenses,” said Healey. “We’re suing this company for violating both state law and its earlier promises not to engage in precisely these illegal practices, and we’re seeking restitution for patients harmed by this misconduct.”
The AG’s lawsuit asserts that Aspen Dental’s misconduct started by luring consumers to its offices with false promises of free services and ultimately resulted in sending many of these consumers into debt collection over its bills for those purportedly free services.
Specifically, the AG’s complaint alleges:
- Aspen Dental took advantage of consumers in pain who called Aspen Dental seeking emergency treatment, telling them that their initial appointment would be free, only to then bill them when the consumers received examinations focused on their emergency.
- Aspen Dental falsely advertised having “no hidden fees,” but trained its scheduling center representatives that they were “NOT permitted to advise” potential patients of certain fees that are usually associated with emergency appointments.
- Aspen Dental deceptively advertised the price of dentures and the existence of money-back guarantees for dentures, without disclosing limitations on the offers.
According to the complaint, these offices brought in over $389 million in net patient revenue from December 2014 to January 2019.
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