The blinglelawsuit is a story most people hear in pieces. Some assume it was a consumer case with a payout waiting. Others think a judge ruled against the company. Neither is right. It was a federal franchise dispute filed in 2023 and closed in 2024 before any judge looked at the claims.
What Is the Blinglelawsuit?
The blinglelawsuit is a lawsuit brought by a group of Blingle franchise owners against the company that sold them their franchises. They were business owners who paid to open Blingle territories, not customers who hired the company to hang lights on their house.
That difference shapes everything else about the case. There is no claim form, no refund program, and no public fund. It is a contract dispute between businesses.
The owners said they were sold a version of the opportunity that did not match what they experienced after signing. They pointed to earnings projections, training, and costs. The company disputed the claims and pointed to the contract they signed.
Most people land on this topic because they are searching for a settlement or a claim deadline. Neither exists here. If that is what brought you, the short answer is that nobody currently has a claim in this case.
| Quick Bio | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Blingle Premier Lighting |
| Business type | Outdoor and holiday lighting franchise |
| Parent company | HorsePower Brands |
| Parent founded | 2020, by Josh Skolnick and Zachery Beutler |
| Case name | Waldron et al. v. SVHB Marketing LLC d/b/a HorsePower Brands et al. |
| Case number | 2:23-cv-03485-MSG |
| Court | U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
| Judge | Mitchell S. Goldberg |
| Filed | August 8, 2023 |
| Status | Dismissed March 20, 2024 |
| Type of case | Franchise contract dispute |
| Class action | No |
| Public settlement | None confirmed |
A Quick Look at Blingle and HorsePower Brands
Blingle is an outdoor lighting franchise. Its territories install holiday lighting, yard and garden lighting, patio lighting, and permanent lighting for homes and businesses. It sits under HorsePower Brands, a franchise holding company.
HorsePower was founded in 2020 and has owned other home service brands, including iFoam, which does spray foam insulation, and Mighty Dog Roofing. The idea was to build a portfolio of service brands under one roof.
Blingle grew quickly. It opened its first location in early 2022 and reported 36 units by the end of that same year. For a franchise brand, that is very fast.
Fast growth is exactly what draws buyers in. It looks like proof that the model works. It can also strain the training and support teams that new owners depend on, which is a theme that runs through the blinglelawsuit.
How a Blingle Franchise Works
Like most home service franchises, Blingle sells a package. The buyer pays an upfront fee and then pays ongoing royalties on revenue. In return, the buyer gets the brand name, a defined territory, training, and marketing help.
Many buyers in this space have no background in the trade. They are career changers, or people who want to run a business on the side while keeping a day job.
The pitch to those buyers is usually that the system will teach them what they need. That promise only works if the training is real and the numbers shared during the sales process are realistic.
When either piece falls short, owners can end up with a business that costs more than they planned. That gap between pitch and reality is what the plaintiffs said they lived through.
Who Filed the Blinglelawsuit?
Eight franchisee companies filed the blinglelawsuit on August 8, 2023. The people behind them ran Blingle territories in several states, including New Jersey, Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Carolina.
Each plaintiff was a limited liability company, with a local business name tied to the Blingle brand. Examples in the filings include Blingle of North Jersey, Blingle of Tulsa, Blingle of North Charlotte, and a Blingle territory in Overland Park.
The case carries the name Waldron et al. because one of the individual owners was listed first among the plaintiffs. The “et al.” simply means “and others.”
The defendants included HorsePower Brands, several affiliated HPB companies, and a number of named company executives. That mix of corporate and individual defendants is common in franchise disputes.
What the Blinglelawsuit Alleged
The central claim was that Blingle oversold what owners could earn and undersold what it would cost them. Plaintiffs said sales conversations included projections in the range of $400,000 to $600,000 in profit for year one, and close to $1 million in revenue by year two.
According to the complaint, those numbers did not hold up after signing. Owners said a company leader later described the first-year goal as simply breaking even. They also said none of the eight plaintiffs ever had a profitable year.
Training was the second major complaint. Plaintiffs said what they received fell well short of what they were promised, especially for people with no lighting experience.
The third complaint involved inventory. Owners said the products they were required to buy did not match what most of their actual customers wanted, so they spent money upfront on stock that did not move.
Other Claims in the Blinglelawsuit
Beyond earnings, training, and inventory, the plaintiffs raised concerns about fees. They said the total cost of running a Blingle territory was higher than what they understood before they signed.
They also described the business as marketed as a turnkey opportunity. In their telling, that language suggested an owner could run it part time without much risk.
The complaint went further and characterized the model as built more around collecting fees than around helping owners succeed. That is a strong accusation, and it is important to remember it is an allegation, not a finding.
The plaintiffs also claimed breach of the franchise agreement. In plain terms, they said the company did not deliver what the contract and the sales process promised.
Blinglelawsuit Case Number and Court Details
The case number is 2:23-cv-03485-MSG, and it was filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. That is a federal trial court. Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg was assigned to it.
Court records classify the case as a franchise contract matter. It was not logged as a consumer protection case, a personal injury case, or a class action.
Knowing the case number is useful if you want to check the docket yourself. Federal court records can be searched through the public access system, and a search by case number will show the filings and the dismissal entry.
Reading primary records is always better than relying on summaries, including this one. Court documents show exactly what was filed and exactly how the case ended.
Why the Blinglelawsuit Was Dismissed
The court dismissed the blinglelawsuit on March 20, 2024, because the plaintiffs had skipped a required step. Their franchise agreements called for private mediation before anyone could sue in open court.
The defense raised that clause early. The court agreed the franchisees had bypassed it, and the case ended on that basis.
This point is easy to miss. The judge never decided whether the earnings projections were accurate. The judge never decided whether training was adequate. No ruling was made on fees or disclosures.
So the dismissal was procedural. It means the case was closed over how it was filed, not over whether the claims were true or false.
Does Dismissed Mean Cleared?
No, and this is where a lot of online summaries go wrong. A dismissal on procedural grounds does not clear a company of the underlying claims. It also does not confirm them.
It leaves the questions open. Nobody with legal authority has said the plaintiffs were right, and nobody has said they were wrong.
HorsePower Brands responded to the claims by describing them as part of a wave of similar allegations across the franchise industry. The company also said prospective buyers sometimes skip a careful read of the disclosures they are legally given before buying.
That is the company’s position, and the plaintiffs saw it differently. Without a ruling on the facts, readers are left to weigh both sides on their own.
How Mediation Clauses Work in the Blinglelawsuit
A mediation clause is a contract term that requires the two sides to try a private, neutral-guided negotiation before going to court. Most franchise agreements include one, and many pair it with arbitration.
Mediation happens behind closed doors. Nothing is published, and no public precedent is created that other franchisees could point to later.
These clauses often favor the franchisor in practice. A franchise company deals with the process regularly and knows how it works. A single owner is usually facing it for the first time.
Some agreements also include a waiver that blocks group claims. That can stop franchisees from joining forces, even when many of them have the same complaint.
What Every Buyer Should Check About Dispute Clauses
The blinglelawsuit is a useful reminder to read the dispute section of any franchise agreement before signing. It is dull reading, but it decides what you can do if things go wrong.
Look at which steps come first, and in what order. Find out who picks the mediator or arbitrator, and whether the outcome is binding.
Check whether the contract waives your right to join other owners in a group claim. Also check where the process has to take place, because travel and time off add real cost.
An independent franchise attorney can walk you through all of this in an hour or two. That fee is small compared with the investment you are about to make.
Blinglelawsuit Timeline
The story runs from 2022 to today, and a simple timeline helps. In early to late 2022, Blingle grew from one location to 36 units. That fast expansion pulled in a wave of new owners.
On August 8, 2023, eight franchisee companies filed suit in federal court. The case then moved through normal early filings during the rest of that year.
On March 20, 2024, the court dismissed it because of the mediation requirement. Public records have shown no refiled case under the same claims since.
During 2024 and 2025, similar complaints were reported at other HorsePower brands. Through the most recent reports I could find, from August 2026, there was still no confirmed settlement and no new filing.
Is There a Blinglelawsuit Settlement?
There is no confirmed blinglelawsuit settlement. The case never reached a verdict, and no public settlement announcement has come out of it.
Cases that end in a procedural dismissal are sent toward private mediation. Whatever happened after that, if mediation took place at all, would normally stay private.
Mediation outcomes only become public if both sides choose to share them. Neither side appears to have done that here.
Compare that with a typical class action settlement. Those usually come with a public fund, a website, a claim form, and a deadline. Nothing like that exists for this case, so be careful with any site that claims otherwise.
Can You File a Claim in the Blinglelawsuit?
No. Only the original eight franchisee companies were parties to the case, and it closed in 2024. There is no open claim process and no window to join.
Everyday customers were never part of it. If you hired a local Blingle franchise to install lights, the lawsuit does not change your service agreement.
If you have a problem with a lighting installation, your options run through the normal channels in your state. That might mean contacting the local franchise owner, your state consumer protection office, or small claims court.
Franchisees who did not join the suit are in a different position too. They were not plaintiffs, and nothing in this case gives them a path to compensation.
Is the Blinglelawsuit a Class Action?
The blinglelawsuit was not a class action. Eight business owners filed it for themselves, seeking their own damages, not on behalf of a larger group.
In a class action, one case can cover a large defined group, and everyone in that group may share in any recovery. That structure never existed here.
This matters because many online posts about “lawsuits” are written as if a payout is coming for the public. For this case, the payout figure for the public is zero, because there is no public fund to draw from.
The legal effect is also narrower. A case like this only ever bound the parties named in the complaint, and nobody else.
What HorsePower Brands Said
HorsePower has defended its practices. Its public stance is that the claims against it reflect a pattern in the franchise world, where complaints from owners follow similar scripts.
The company also stressed that buyers receive legally required disclosure documents before they buy. In its view, owners who skip a careful review of those documents later feel surprised by things that were disclosed.
That argument has some weight in the franchise world, where the disclosure document is the main protection a buyer gets. It also explains why advisors push buyers so hard to read it line by line.
Still, a company statement is not a court finding. Both the plaintiffs’ account and the company’s response are positions, and the dismissal meant neither was tested.
Similar Complaints at Other HorsePower Brands
After the blinglelawsuit closed, similar concerns were reported at other HorsePower brands. Industry coverage has pointed to franchisees at iFoam and Mighty Dog Roofing raising issues about training, support, and cost disclosures.
Some of the figures in those reports, such as equipment price differences and territory closures, come from trade coverage and individual owner accounts. They are worth reading, but they should be checked against current official documents.
A separate complaint by former franchisees of a HorsePower brand has also been reported, seeking to undo their franchise agreements. It describes a similar pattern of inflated projections and thin support.
None of this proves the claims. It does show why the blinglelawsuit keeps getting mentioned. Repeated complaints across several brands from the same parent get more attention than a single case would.
The Pattern Franchise Lawyers Talk About
Franchise attorneys often describe a familiar risk with fast-growing, multi-brand portfolios. When a parent company adds new concepts and new owners quickly, support teams can fall behind.
New owners then get less help than they expected during the hardest months. That is when sales are slow and costs are highest.
It does not mean every fast-growing franchise is a bad bet. Plenty of them do well. It means growth speed is a fact to examine, not a reason to feel reassured.
When you evaluate a young franchise, ask how many owners it has per support staff member. Ask how many territories opened and how many closed. The answers tell you more than a sales deck.
Is Blingle Still in Business?
Yes. Blingle was still operating and selling franchise territories as of the latest reports I found in 2026. The dismissal did not shut anything down.
A lawsuit filing, especially one dismissed on procedural grounds, does not stop a business from operating. Companies keep running through litigation unless a court orders otherwise, and no court did that here.
HorsePower Brands continues to run Blingle alongside its other concepts. The company lists an address in Omaha, Nebraska, and keeps recruiting new franchise owners.
If you are a customer, you can still hire a local Blingle franchise. Just treat it like any other contractor. Get a written quote, ask about insurance, and check reviews.
Blingle Franchise Cost and What It Means for Buyers
Reported figures put the initial franchise fee at $59,500, with an ongoing royalty of 8.5 percent of revenue. Those are the headline numbers, and they are only the start.
Public reporting tied to the case also lists other costs. These include an opening package of up to $25,000, an initial lighting inventory package of about $50,000, and around $12,000 for digital marketing setup.
There are also reported charges for technology, with a $9,500 fee plus monthly costs. Call center services were reported at $3,600 a year, and initial training at $4,995.
Add those together and the total investment can run well past the franchise fee alone. Fees change from year to year, so always confirm current numbers in the latest disclosure document.
How to Read a Franchise Disclosure Document
Every franchisor must give buyers a Franchise Disclosure Document before the sale. It is long, but a few sections do most of the work for you.
Item 3 lists litigation involving the franchisor and its affiliates. If a company has been sued by its own owners, this is where it should show up.
Item 7 estimates your startup costs. Item 19 covers financial performance claims, and Item 20 shows how many franchises opened, closed, or changed hands.
A high closure rate is a stronger warning sign than a single lawsuit. A pattern of repeated complaints from different owners should get your attention, even if each case was dismissed.
What Franchise Buyers Can Learn From the Blinglelawsuit
The first lesson is to treat verbal promises with care. If a salesperson tells you what you will earn, ask for it in writing. If it is not in the disclosure document, assume it is not a promise.
The second lesson is to talk to existing owners without the company in the room. Call people the franchisor did not hand you. Ask them directly about training, costs, and profit.
The third lesson is to build your own numbers. Take the fees, the inventory, and the royalty, and work out how much revenue you need just to break even. Then ask yourself how likely that is in your market.
The fourth lesson is to hire an independent franchise lawyer. Not one the franchisor recommends. Your lawyer should work for you alone.
Steps Worth Taking Before You Sign
Before you commit to any franchise, including Blingle, work through a short checklist. It takes time, but it protects your savings.
Read Items 3, 7, 19, and 20 of the disclosure document closely. Call at least five current owners and a few who left. Ask what they wish they had known.
Have a lawyer review the full agreement, especially the dispute resolution and fee sections. Build your own projection using conservative sales numbers.
Do not let a sales deadline rush you. A real opportunity will still be there after a careful review. Pressure to sign quickly is itself a signal worth noting.
What Current Blingle Franchisees Should Do
If you already own a Blingle territory, the old case matters less than your own agreement. What it says about disputes, renewals, and territory protection affects you every day.
Keep careful records of what you were told during the sales process, what training you received, and what you have spent. Notes written at the time carry more weight than memory.
If you have concerns, speak with a franchise attorney before you act. Pay close attention to any mediation steps in your contract, since the blinglelawsuit ended over exactly that.
You can also talk with other owners. Franchisees who share what they know are often better informed than those who go it alone.
Latest Blinglelawsuit Update
The latest public record I could find, from August 2026, shows no new federal filing tied to the original blinglelawsuit. The case remains closed at the court level, with no refiled action and no settlement announcement.
Attention has moved to the sister brands, where complaints continue to draw interest from franchise publications and trade groups. They are legally separate matters, but they involve the same parent company.
If you want to track this topic, watch for three things. Look for a new filing under a new case number, a public statement from either side, or a change to the litigation section of the current disclosure document.
Search interest tends to rise whenever HorsePower makes news. A new complaint at one brand sends people back to the older Blingle case, even though they are separate.
Blinglelawsuit and Your Rights as a Customer
If you are a homeowner or business that hired Blingle for lighting work, your rights have not changed because of this case. Your agreement is with the local franchise owner.
Keep your quote, invoice, and any messages about the job. If something goes wrong, start with the local operator and put your complaint in writing.
If that does not work, you can contact your state attorney general or consumer protection office. For smaller amounts, small claims court is often the simplest route.
None of that depends on the blinglelawsuit. It is worth saying plainly because many readers worry that a lawsuit around a brand means their own job is at risk.
Final Thoughts on the Blinglelawsuit
The blinglelawsuit is a franchise story, not a payout story. Eight owners raised serious concerns, a mediation clause ended the case before a judge ruled on them, and no settlement has surfaced publicly.
For customers, nothing about it changes your lighting job. For anyone thinking about buying a franchise, it is a good prompt to slow down and do real homework.
Pull the disclosure document, read the litigation section, and call people who run the business today. Court records and direct conversations tell you more than any headline.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Blinglelawsuit
Is the blinglelawsuit real?
Yes. It was a federal case filed on August 8, 2023, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The case number is 2:23-cv-03485-MSG, and you can look it up in public court records.
What happened to the blinglelawsuit?
A judge dismissed it on March 20, 2024. The dismissal was procedural, because the franchisees had skipped a mediation step their contracts required. The court did not rule on the claims themselves.
Who filed the blinglelawsuit?
Eight franchisee companies that operated Blingle territories filed it. They were business owners in several states, not customers and not members of the general public.
Was there a blinglelawsuit settlement?
No settlement has been publicly confirmed. Any private mediation after the dismissal would likely have stayed confidential. No payout has been announced to the public.
Can I file a claim in the blinglelawsuit?
No. The case is closed, and it was never a consumer claim process. Only the original plaintiffs were parties, and there is no claim form or deadline to meet.
Was the blinglelawsuit a class action?
No. It was brought by eight franchisee companies for their own losses. There was no certified class, and no group of people could join it.
Is Blingle still operating?
Yes. As of the latest reports from 2026, Blingle was still operating and selling franchise territories under HorsePower Brands. The lawsuit did not stop that.
Does a dismissed case mean Blingle did nothing wrong?
Not necessarily. Dismissed on procedural grounds means no court decided the facts. The allegations were never proven, and they were never disproven.
Should I avoid buying a Blingle franchise because of the lawsuit?
That is your call, and one dismissed case should not decide it alone. Read the full disclosure document, speak to current and former owners, and have a lawyer review the contract before you sign anything.