Biggest HSN Controversies: Legal Battles, Faulty Products & One Nasty Divorce

As part of the QVC Group family for nearly a decade, HSN (formerly Home Shopping Network) is as imperiled by its parent company’s recent bankruptcy as QVC, its sibling shopping network. And like QVC, HSN has been dogged by lawsuits and other controversies over the years. Here are our picks for the biggest, starting with a record-breaking libel case.

1989: HSN loses record-setting libel case

In September 1987, HSN sued GTE, alleging that the telephone company’s system couldn’t keep up with HSN demand and had cost the network $388 million in profits, according to Time. GTE countersued, alleging that HSN mismanagement was to blame and that and the network committed libel with a press release about its GTE gripes.

In August 1989, a jury in Pinellas County, Florida, sided with GTE, ordering GTE $100 million in libel damages, which was the largest libel award in history, Time added. That November, GTE and HSN agreed to a settlement for an undisclosed cash payment, ending all litigation between the two companies, per The New York Times.

1993: Lawsuits and a contentious divorce spell bad press for HSN

In April 1993, the Los Angeles Times reported that a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, was investigating allegations against HSN management, including claims of chicanery and blackmail.

In divorce proceedings, former HSN production vice president Wanda Rayle DiFilippo alleged former HSN general counsel Fernando DiFilippo, her estranged husband, had extorted $12 million from co-founders Roy Speer and Lowell Paxson in exchange for his not suing them. Wanda said her husband threatened to sue the co-founders for allegedly overpaying vendors for merchandise in exchange for kickbacks. Fernando, Speer, and Paxson denied those allegations.

“I’ve handled a lot of cases involving more money, but never one where agents of the FBI, the IRS, and the U.S. attorney’s office sat in on a dissolution of marriage. This case is unique,” Dade County Circuit Judge Amy Steele Donner told the Times.

HSN was the subject of other lawsuits at the time, including one filed by Allen P. Allweiss., Fernando’s successor as the company’s general counsel. Allweiss alleged that longtime HSN consultant Francis Santangelo was a member of the Gambino organized crime family and that Speer had given approval for HSN to lend Santangelo to pay off a judgment against him. In a separate suit, shareholders alleged Speer had diverted HSN money to his son.

In April 1994, a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa to the federal court revealed that the grand jury investigation had ended without criminal charges, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

1999: HSN pays $1.1 million civil penalty after violating FTC order

HSN and subsidiary Home Shopping Club, L.P., agreed in April 1999 to pay a $1.1 million civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the network aired advertisements for various health and beauty products with claims the network could not substantiate, thus violating a prior FTC order.

In its complaint, the FTC alleged HSN ran ads for skin care products with unsubstantiated claims that the products could “clear anyone’s acne within several months,” and “clear cystic acne and razor bumps on men’s skin.” The FTC also called out other HSN ad copy it considered unsubstantiated, including claims that a weight-loss product would make customers lose between 30 and 60 pounds and that a supplement to treat PMS and menopause provided “all the benefits of prescription estrogen replacement drugs.”

2003: HSN recalls frying pans at risk of exploding

In October 2003, HSN announced a recall of 244,000 Innova frying pans because the nonstick part could “separate forcefully and be propelled when the pan is preheated, used on high heat, or used for frying, deep-frying, or braising.” Innova, the manufacturer, described the risk more vividly, saying the pans could “explode” during use, per Reuters. In its announcement, HSN noted there had been 31 reports of the frying pans separating, including seven reports of consumers being burned by hot oil and eight reports of property damage.

2023: Hairdresser Martino Cartier sues HSN for $50 million, alleging defamation

In January 2023, hairdresser Martino Cartier filed a $50-million defamation lawsuit against HSN in federal court. In his suit, he said HSN had fired him earlier that month for making “unwanted physical contact with multiple team members” and showing “signs of being intoxicated,” according to Philadelphia magazine. Cartier denied HSN’s accusations, saying he brought an “extroverted, over-the-top persona” to air and that he’s a ‘self-described ‘hugger.’”

“[I] sued them in federal court to protect my name and reputation,” Cartier told the New Jersey Globe in 2026.

His suit against HSN was dismissed, and settlement terms were not disclosed, the Globe reported.

2023: HSN pays $16 million civil penalty after not immediately reporting clothing steamer issues

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in November 2023 announced that HSN had agreed to pay a $16 million civil penalty to resolve the CPSC’s charges over the Joy Mangano-brand My Little Steamer and My Little Steamer Go Mini products.

The CPSC had alleged that HSN knowingly failed to promptly report that the steamers contained a defect that could pose a risk to consumers. Between 2012 and 2019, HSN received reports that hot water could escape the steamers and result in permanent and sometimes grievous injuries.

2025: HSN’s St. Petersburg campus closes amid mass layoffs and accusations of poor management and poor pay

In January 2025, QVC Group announced that it would close HSN’s campus in St. Petersburg, Florida, and that March, the company announced that it would lay off 900 employees, some of whom would work for several months to help move HSN operations to West Chester, Pennsylvania, according to CBS Philadelphia. HSN aired its last St. Pete broadcast that June.

Disgruntled current and former HSN employees vented on Reddit at the time. “It could have been a much better company had any senior management had a clue what really went on in each department,” one person wrote. “I worked there for a while and saw — let me just put it mildly — way too effing much. I could write a book.”

Another user said, “While we hang on to the last few months of employment, they continue to harass us with pointless messages and town halls from the millionaire CEO, when we can’t even afford rent on what they are paying us. I have a part-time job on top of my full-time job with HSN (in a popular department). The way they treat us is a complete joke. David Rawlinson [then QVC Group’s CEO], you are out of touch, and we don’t like you. Please stop talking to us.”