Plaintiff Wants to Expand Proposed Class in TGI Friday’s Overpriced Drinks Class Action

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The proposed class in a class action lawsuit filed against TGI Friday’s alleging that the restaurant doesn’t list the price of drinks on menus has been expanded from just a class of New Jersey customers to all TGI Friday’s customers nationwide.

Plaintiff Michael Grace filed an amended TGI Friday’s class action lawsuit. In the new proposal, he dropped the allegation based on New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, but he kept claims that the restaurant is violating constitutional law through a breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

The new proposed nationwide class now includes hundreds of thousands of potential class members compared to the hundreds of customers expected to be included in the New Jersey class.

“The proposed class consists of all customers of T.G.I. Fridays, Sentinel Capital Partners, and Tri-Artisan Partners restaurants nationwide who purchased items from the menu that did not have a disclosed price from Oct. 6, 2008 onward,” the new proposed TGI Fridays class action lawsuit says.

Grace’s class action lawsuit is one of three class actions making similar allegations against the restaurant chain. The first was filed in 2010 before TGI Friday’s was bought by Sentinel and Tri-Artisan and was owned by Carlson Restaurants Worldwide LLC. The second TGI Friday’s class action lawsuit was filed in September 2014 against the South Jersey Pubs franchisee. All three TGI Friday’s class action lawsuits are represented by the same law firm.

According to Grace’s undisclosed beverage prices class action lawsuit, the missing beverage prices puts customers in the position of having to ask the servers for the prices and leads customers to making impulse decisions.

As a result, TGI Friday’s is able to charge excessive or even different prices for the same beverage based on where the customer is located, whether at the bar or in the dining room, Grace alleges in his TGI Friday’s overpriced beverages class action lawsuit.

According to the class action lawsuit, Grace ordered a mixed drink at a TGI Friday’s in Evesham, New Jersey on in September 2014 that he allegedly paid $10.39 for, which he claims is not a reasonable price for the beverage.

“Defendants’ practice of making an affirmative offer for the sale of beverages without prices on otherwise comprehensively priced menus is an intentional and carefully planned act,” the complaint said. “Plaintiff and those similarly situated spend more then they otherwise would had prices been available.”

In December 2014, Grace asked that the class action lawsuit be transferred from the New Jersey state court where the TGI Friday’s class action was originally filed to a federal court because he believed that that the damages were more than $5 million.

However, Grace did try to have the class action lawsuit sent back to that state court because he said he wasn’t sure that the damages were more than $5 million, which U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler denied in a Monday ruling because he believes that the damages could exceed $5 million.

While Grace does not mention the decision in his newly amended complaint, he chose to expand the class, which would certainly increase the proposed damages.

Grace is represented by Sander D. Friedman and Wesley Hanna of The Law Office of Sander D. Friedman.

The defendants are represented by Matthew S. Schultz of LeClairRyan.

The TGI Friday’s Overpriced Drink Class Action Lawsuit is Grace v. TGI Friday’s Inc. et al., Case No. 1:14-cv-07233, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

UPDATE: On Mar. 14, 2016, a federal judge granted TGI Friday’s motion to dismiss the case. However, the judge left it open for the plaintiff to refile the claim as long as he notifies the companies properly.