Consumers love getting a deal on purchases, but not all items presented as “on sale” are genuine bargains. The complaint for this class action alleges that Pier 1 Imports (US), Inc. uses false reference prices to claim that consumers are getting substantial discounts, even though the items were never sold at the “original” prices.
The class for this action is all persons in California who, within the applicable statutory period, bought from the e-commerce website of Pier 1 Imports one or more products at discounts from an advertised reference price and who have not received a refund or credit for their purchases.
The complaint alleges, “False reference pricing occurs when a seller fabricates a false ‘original’ price for a product and then offers that product at a substantially lower price under the guise of a sale.” This gives consumers the impression that the item is more valuable or of better quality than it actually is.
It also attracts consumers because consumers love to feel that they are getting a deal or a bargain. The complaint quotes an article in the Journal of Consumer Psychology saying that consumers “sometimes expend more time and energy to get a discount than seems reasonable given the financial gain involved,” and “often derive more satisfaction from finding a sale price than might be expected on the basis of the amount of money they actually save.”
False reference pricing violates federal and California laws. According to the complaint, California law allows seller to discount an item from its own or a competitor’s original price of an item for up to ninety days.
After that, the complaint says, “the seller has two options: the product must either return to its full original price, or the seller may continue to sell the product at the discounted price, as long as it discloses to the consumer the date on which the product was last offered for sale at its alleged former price.”
Also, for an “original” price to be legitimate, the complaint claims, California law requires that the seller offered the item at that price “on a regular basis, for a commercially reasonable period of time.”
Pier 1 offers products for sale on its e-commerce website, the complaint says, with an “original” price, shown with a strikethrough, and a “sale” price. “However,” the complaint alleges, “the products sold on [Pier 1’s] e-commerce website are never sold at the price displayed with a strikethrough—the price consumers are led to presume is the full original price. The ‘deep discount’ of products communicated to consumers viewing [Pier 1’s] e-commerce website constitutes a misrepresentation by [Pier 1].”
The complaint uses images from the Wayback Machine archive, attached as Exhibit A, to support its claims of false reference pricing.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Pier 1 Imports False “Original” Prices on “Discounted” Goods California Complaint
April 15, 2022
Consumers love getting a deal on purchases, but not all items presented as “on sale” are genuine bargains. The complaint for this class action alleges that Pier 1 Imports (US), Inc. uses false reference prices to claim that consumers are getting substantial discounts, even though the items were never sold at the “original” prices.
Pier 1 Imports False “Original” Prices on “Discounted” Goods California ComplaintCase Event History
Pier 1 Imports False “Original” Prices on “Discounted” Goods California Complaint
April 15, 2022
Consumers love getting a deal on purchases, but not all items presented as “on sale” are genuine bargains. The complaint for this class action alleges that Pier 1 Imports (US), Inc. uses false reference prices to claim that consumers are getting substantial discounts, even though the items were never sold at the “original” prices.
Pier 1 Imports False “Original” Prices on “Discounted” Goods California Complaint