Last March—a full 12 months after Burke Decor’s troubles first spilled out to the public—the government got involved. In a lawsuit filed in local court, Ohio’s attorney general, Dave Yost, accused the beleaguered e-commerce retailer of taking more than 350 customers’ money without delivering the furniture they ordered. A month later, Burke Decor’s website went offline. Now, the lawsuit appears to have reached an anticlimactic ending: On the court’s docket, a February 26 listing shows the case was “settled and dismissed before mediation.” The news was first reported by Youngstown, Ohio–based NBC affiliate WFMJ.
The case has not been officially dismissed, and a representative for Yost’s office said the matter was “pending.” Emails to Erin Burke asking for comment went unreturned by press time.
It’s not clear whether customers will receive refunds as part of the settlement—the court’s public docket did not include any information related to the settlement agreement. In a release accompanying the original lawsuit, Yost claimed the damages exceeded $380,000, though his case only addressed customers who had filed a formal complaint, suggesting that the total could be much higher. A Facebook group for the brand’s jilted shoppers, Burke Decor Scammed Me, remains active—with several members posting late last year that they are still owed refunds on orders that never came through.
The close of the lawsuit will bring an end to the high-stakes cases swirling around the Ohio-born, Los Angeles–based entrepreneur. Late last year, FedEx’s $1.68 million case against Burke Decor was dismissed without prejudice. And Burke’s personal bankruptcy case in Los Angeles—a legal matter that seemed to combine personal expenses with business dealings—has been resolved.
Burke herself has not spoken about the cases publicly. But in a legal brief filed in response to the Ohio complaint, she and her lawyers flatly denied many of the key allegations, while emphasizing that Burke Decor, the brand at the heart of the case, was no longer an operating business.
Though Burke Decor was shuttered last year, it was not its owner’s only e-commerce venture. As Business of Home has previously reported, several former employees with direct knowledge of the situation have said that she also owned baby supply site Babytot.com and online rug retailer Designer-Rug.com. Surprisingly, according to the former employees, Burke also launched a new home goods site, Studio Per Diem, shortly after the collapse of Burke Decor.
Not all of Burke’s remaining holdings seem to have survived. Designer-Rug’s site appears to be down, with a message informing customers that the company is “currently not accepting new orders.” However, Babytot.com is live, and Studio Per Diem is advertising a 20 percent off sale.













