Ever notice how items at some stores seem to always be on sale? Like to the point where you wonder if things ever actually sell for the full retail price? Well, apparently the Los Angeles city attorney’s office caught on to that at four major retail chains and has determined that the practice constitutes fraud and deceptive advertising.
The lawsuit filed by City Hall today alleges that Macy’s, Kohl’s, Sears and JC Penney put items "on sale," advertising big savings over original prices that they never actually charged. It turns out, that isn’t just kind of shifty, it’s actually illegal. A store is barred from inflating the advertised pre-sale prices like that because customers might be deceived about how much they’re actually saving. The practice is referred to as “false reference pricing.”
California law requires any advertised pre-sale price be a price that the item was actually sold for in the store within the last three months. The San Jose Mercury News reports that the department stores are accused of violating that rule.
“Customers have the right to be told the truth about the prices they’re paying and to know if a bargain is really a bargain,” L.A. city attorney Mike Feuer noted in a statement regarding the lawsuit.
This isn’t the first time these stores have been accused of this gambit, either. Just last year, a civil class action suit against JC Penney and Kohl’s for the same behavior resulted in a settlement totaling more than $56 million.
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