As a follow-up to our recent posts on price gouging (see here, here, and here), we noted recent signs that federal and state authorities have escalated their enforcement efforts.
Until recently, most consumers likely associated anything starting with “Corona” with a sunny beach and a lime wedge.
Not anymore.
The public is rightly concerned about coronavirus and how to avoid catching it. And where the public has questions, marketers will have answers. Here are a couple things to think about before rushing that next
At the end of 2019, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo released the 10th proposal of his 2020 State of the State Agenda, which aims to eliminate the so-called “pink tax,” a gender-based pricing phenomenon that allegedly results in higher prices for good and services marketed towards women as compared to substantially similar alternatives marketed
Over the past few years, a number of retailers have been challenged over their promotional pricing practices. Those challenges have been brought, primarily, by plaintiffs’ attorneys in class action suits and, occasionally, by regulators. This month, though, NAD issued a decision in a challenge that was brought by a company’s competitor.
According to the challenger
A bench trial began this week to resolve allegations by the FTC that DirecTV misled millions of consumers about the actual costs of its subscriptions. According to the FTC, DirecTV should be required to pay $3.95 billion dollars to compensate consumers for failing to disclose that it would raise its monthly subscription price after a
On August 2, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed a putative class action lawsuit against Ross Stores that accused the discount retailer of misleading promotional pricing practices. The lawsuit stemmed from February and May 2015 purchases by the two lead plaintiffs of items bearing price tags with a selling
Yesterday, the Virginia Attorney General announced that it reached a settlement with Hobby Lobby over the retailer’s price comparisons. According to the press release, Hobby Lobby advertised discounts compared to “other sellers,” but failed to disclose the basis of comparison, thus making it difficult for consumers to determine whether they were getting a good deal.
Class action plaintiffs continue to explore new theories under state promotional pricing statutes. Last week, a plaintiff filed a class action complaint against Gap Inc. in California state court, alleging that the company violates several state laws by not adequately disclosing which products are excluded from an advertised sale. As a result, consumers make a
Last Thursday, four members of Congress sent a letter to the FTC Chairwoman expressing concerns that consumers are being deceived by pricing at outlet stores and asking the FTC to investigate potential violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act and the FTC’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing. They noted that, unlike the historical practice
In the Overstock.com case described in the post yesterday, the plaintiff also argued that Overstock’s representations that shipping was “free” or “only $2.95” violated California’s False Advertising Law because the company factored the full cost of shipping into the underlying product price. The court ruled in Overstock’s favor, determining that the claim was “nonsensical,”
