Whole Foods Faces Price Disclosure Class Action Lawsuit

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Whole Foods Market Group Inc. faces a potential class action lawsuit in New Jersey over allegations that the grocery store chain misleads customers into paying a premium for food items by failing to inform them of the price prior to sale.

Lead plaintiff Nancy Burgos filed the Whole Foods class action lawsuit after allegedly noticing a pattern of concealing product prices at a New Jersey store. Burgos claims that this is a violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act which states that “it shall be an unlawful practice for any person to sell, attempt to sell or offer for sale any merchandise at retail unless the total selling price of such merchandise is plainly marked by a stamp, tag, label or sign either affixed to the merchandiser located at the point where the merchandise is offered for sale.”

According to the Whole Foods pricing class action lawsuit, Burgos bought Crunchy Kale Cocoa Chips, Oxo Pizza Wheel, and Natural Chewing Gum from a Whole Foods New Jersey store without knowing what the prices were before paying. The total price for the three items was $16.98, but the plaintiff claims that had she been informed of the price ahead of time, she never would have made the purchase.

The Whole Foods price disclosure class action lawsuit states that the reasoning behind the New Jersey statue is that customers “have a right to know the price of all items they wish to purchase before taking them off the shelves. Clear indication of the price of all merchandise will aid in preventing discriminatory sales practices and capricious pricing by merchants.”

Burgos claims that Whole Foods intentionally misleads customers by not disclosing prices until they have to pay for them at the register.

If approved, the Whole Foods class action lawsuit would be open to all Class Members who are New Jersey residents who, from December 2014 through the present, purchased any item at a New Jersey Whole Foods store, including but not limited to, Crunchy Kale CocoaChips, Oxo Pizza Wheels, and/or Natural Chewing Gum, which did not indicate the price of the item, either on the item itself or at the place in the store where the item was offered for sale.

This class action lawsuit follows a separate Whole Foods lawsuit filed this summer that alleged the high-end grocer repeatedly overpriced food sold by weight by as much as 40 percent.

Plaintiff Joseph Bassolino of New York claimed that Whole Foods violated false labeling state laws by using fraudulent business practices. Once the Whole Foods overcharging class action lawsuit is approved, it will be open to all New York Class Members who shopped at a Whole Foods store within the state in the last three years.

Burgos is represented by David J. DiSabato of DiSabato & Bouckenooghe LLC.

The Whole Foods Price Disclosure Class Action Lawsuit is Burgos v. Whole Foods Market Group Inc., Case No. L-6050-15, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County.

Update: On Jan. 20, 2016, Whole Foods Market along with Burgos agreed to dismiss this putative class action lawsuit.