A San Francisco judge ordered HomeAdvisor to halt its TV and radio ads in California until the Golden-based home services company stops saying that it performs background checks on all workers who visit a customer’s home.
The preliminary injunction, which went into effect Monday, comes about two months after the San Francisco District Attorney sued HomeAdvisor. The DA’s office called HomeAdvisor’s ads “false and misleading” because only the business owner is background checked.
Ads that don’t imply all employees underwent background checks are allowed as long as there is a disclaimer that says “HomeAdvisor Background-Checks Business Owners But Not Employees,” according to the order signed by the San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn.
In a statement, HomeAdvisor said it disagreed with the claims in the case and is appealing.
“We are committed to ensuring HomeAdvisor customers receive a best-in-class experience from our network of skilled service professionals. This legal matter is solely about how our background-check program is described in our advertising, not the merits of our rigorous background-check process, which leverages leading third-party services in combination with our own proprietary technologies. We disagree with the claims made in this case and have appealed the order. We continue to ensure that our advertising remains fair and accurate. We encourage all of our customers to learn more about HomeAdvisor’s background-check process by visiting: www.homeadvisor.com/ screening,” the company said.
“This preliminary injunction protects California consumers from misleading advertising,” said District Attorney George Gascón in a statement. “HomeAdvisor needs to be honest about who they background-check, so that consumers are well-informed when deciding whether to allow strangers into their homes.”
The company, which recently merged with Angie’s List to become ANGI Homeservices, has grown since changing its name in 2012 from ServiceMagic. It built a business of connecting homeowners to electricians, plumbers and other home-services professionals. At the end of 2017, HomeAdvisor said it had a network of 181,000 professionals in 400 U.S. markets.
According to the lawsuit filed by the San Francisco DA’s office in March, HomeAdvisor touted its network of “hundreds of thousands of background-checked pros” in radio and TV ads and online. But the DA’s office found that HomeAdvisor doesn’t check the employees of a business or even the owner of a business that is a franchise or independent contractor for a larger company. And that detail didn’t appear in the company’s advertisements.
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“HomeAdvisor’s advertisements are false and misleading because they are likely to deceive consumers into believing that all service professionals hired through HomeAdvisor who come into their homes have passed criminal background checks. This is not the case,” according to the lawsuit.
