Consumers are warned to avoid the online marketer “Heritage Cremation Provider.” Its website can seem convincing, but this company has no legal basis for operating here in Massachusetts. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a press release on Friday April 22 announcing a federal law suit against Heritage.
On behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice is suing Funeral & Cremation Group of North America, LLC, Legacy Cremation Services, LLC, d/b/a Heritage Cremation Provider, and their owner, Anthony Joseph Damiano, for misrepresenting their location and prices, illegally threatening and failing to return cremated remains to consumers, and failing to provide disclosures required by the Funeral Rule. The FTC is asking the court to stop violations of the FTC Act and the Funeral Rule and impose civil penalties on the defendants.
Press release 4/22/2022 from FTC
The Funeral Consumers Alliance sent a “Consumer Alert!” notice to us today with a copy of the press release, which you can read in full on the FCA website: FTC Press Release.
Recently one of our members noticed a Heritage webpage offering reasonably-priced cremation services in Springfield, MA, and suggested that we include this service provider on our website. We investigated and observed that the Heritage Cremation website was VERY misleading. When we searched a small town, e.g., for Gill, MA, we found a webpage promoting cremation services by the “funeral homes in Gill” – although we know that Gill has neither crematories nor funeral homes. No matter what town you specified, you’d get the very SAME advertising text, with that location name inserted. It became apparent that this is an out-of-state company PRETENDING to be local, family-owned and inexpensive — a marketing ploy to lure unsuspecting consumers into their net. We welcome the news of a federal lawsuit against Heritage.