Companies Walmart and Target are now encouraging their customers to alert when they see an overpriced item, after a double demand from a worried consumer put them in a hurry. Yoram Kahana filed both lawsuits against Walmart and Target Corporation in August 2022, as reported by Top Class Actions.
Yoram Kahn filed both lawsuits against Walmart, Inc. and Target Corporation in August 2022, saying that both retailers have “shelf pricing” that “frequently misrepresents the prices consumers are charged at the point of sale.”
Walmart and Target, Both Are in the Spot Now
Kahn thinks this is false advertising, which is heavily regulated in the United States. In the state of Illinois, where he lives and presented the lawsuit, this alleged situations violate the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act and the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. “We encourage customers to bring pricing inaccuracies to our associates’ attention, and we will happily address the matter,” a Walmart spokesperson said.
“We are reviewing the complaint and will respond in Court as appropriate after we are served,” the spokesperson said. Kahn’s lawsuit states that shoppers allegedly pay 5% to 10% more in Walmart, compared to other retailers, because of price misrepresentations. In the case of Target, that overcharge is around 20%:
“Consumers reasonably rely on Shelf Pricing to make informed purchasing decisions, and reasonably expect to pay the advertised Shelf Price when they reach the checkout,” both lawsuits express. Walmart and Target are just one of the 61 companies that have recently been overcharging asus customers when they are paying at the checkout. Dollar General is also on this list.
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) Standards Division collected the money from stores in 32 counties. The department detected the price scanning errors while conducting regular surprise inspections to verify accuracy. The process involves reviewing the advertised prices and the prices that are registered at the cashier. If a store has an error rate higher than two percent in overcharges, inspectors will contact the store managers for a follow-up inspection, NCDA&CS says. Although surcharges are also reported, they do not count against a store.