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Appeals court overturns ruling against Value Village

Published 8:50 am Wednesday, August 18, 2021

A Value Village store is seen Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, in Edmonds, Wash. The company that operates 300 Value Village, Savers and other thrift stores in the U.S., Canada and Australia is suing Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, saying his office has violated its rights by demanding $3.2 million to settle a three-year investigation. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
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A Value Village store is seen Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, in Edmonds, Wash. The company that operates 300 Value Village, Savers and other thrift stores in the U.S., Canada and Australia is suing Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, saying his office has violated its rights by demanding $3.2 million to settle a three-year investigation. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
A Value Village store is seen in Edmonds in 2017. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, file)

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — A Washington state appeals court has overturned a 2019 ruling that found Bellevue-headquartered thrift chain TVI Inc., which operates Value Village and Savers, had misled customers by deceptively marketing itself as a charity.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office sued TVI in 2017 over alleged violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act, will appeal the decision, spokesperson Brionna Aho said in an email to the Seattle Times.

“We … respectfully disagree with the appeals court,” Aho said. “We intend to hold Value Village accountable for misleading Washingtonians.”

Value Village cheered the reversal, in a statement calling Ferguson’s suit “costly” and “misguided.”

The appeals court’s ruling “was a resounding confirmation that what we’ve been doing has always been transparent and the AG’s case was not well-founded,” said Value Village general counsel Rich Medway.

Value Village operates 14 locations in Washington, though none in Seattle; its last Seattle storefront, in the Crown Hill neighborhood, closed in 2019.

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