Santa Clara, CA: A proposed consumer fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against Macy' and Bloomingdale's alleging the retailers falsely increased prices in stores to make their purported sale discounts appear greater.
Filed by named plaintiffs Kristin Haley and Sylvia Thompson, the lawsuit asserts Macy' Inc. and its wholly owned affiliate Bloomingdale's Inc. regularly deceive and mislead customers by labeling products at regular and outlet stores throughout the US with prices intentionally set above a manufacturer' suggested retail price (MRSP) in order to make customers think they are getting a better deal when the items are put on sale.
"Defendants represented on the price tags of their products ... prices that were artificially inflated and arbitrary and did not represent a bona fide price at which they previously sold such products or the prevailing market price for such items,"the complaint states. "Defendants then offered ... to sell the items for a reduced or discounted sale price, which supposedly represented a significant discount off of the false original, regular or compare at price."
The lawsuit states that in some instances the defendants would show an original or compare price on a tag that was two or more times the MSRP. They would then claim to have discounted an item by 50 percent, when in fact, that was merely the actual suggested price.
The plaintiffs assert they were misled into purchasing several products from the defendants based on these false discounted prices. Further, Thompson claimed she purchased a $5,000 mattress from Macy's in 2014 because she believed it to be discounted by half.
The plaintiffs claim this "phantom markdown scheme"is harming thousands of customers.They assert they would not have made such purchases, or would not have paid the amounts they did, but for the false representations of the original or regular price of the items purchased, as compared with the supposedly discounted or sale price at which plaintiffs' purchased the items,"the complaint states.
The suit also seeks unspecified damages and restitution on claims of unfair and fraudulent business practices and false advertising, along with certification of a class of consumers in California and Florida consisting of anyone who purchased goods from either retailer that were falsely discounted, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs are represented by Robert S. Green of Green & Noblin PC and Kenneth G. Gilman of Gilman Law LLP. The case is Haley et al v. Macy's, Inc. et al, case number 3:15-cv-06033, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
