GNC Class Action Claims Retailer Unfairly Discontinued Gold Card Program

Health aficionados filed a class action lawsuit alleging GNC, a retail nutritional supplement chain, yanked the rug out from under them when it pulled its Gold Card program that entitled them to significant discounts in stores.

Lead plaintiff Brandon Register alleges that he and other members of the Gold Card program paid $15 a year to access discounts at GNC. But the program was pulled by GNC without notice and Gold Card holders were not reimbursed for their entrance fee, according to the class action lawsuit.

“For a number of years, GNC offered customers the opportunity to join its Gold Card Program (‘Program’),” Register says. “In exchange for an annual payment of $15, Program members received a Gold Card, which entitled them to receive a substantial discount on the purchase of in-store items for a one-year period. The Program was very popular with GNC’s customers, with more than 7 million individuals participating in the Program nationwide.”

“In December 2016, GNC unilaterally discontinued the Program, resulting in Plaintiff and millions of other members of the Class (defined below) being unable to receive the benefits of the Program for the full one-year period contemplated when they paid to join the Program,” the lawsuit states.

According to the class action complaint, when GNC pulled the Gold Card program, it breached a contract with program members. The plaintiff also alleges that GNC violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

“Remarkably, GNC was continuing to sell Gold Cards until just a few weeks prior to the discontinuation of the Program, while having full knowledge that purchasers would not receive the benefit of the Program,” Register claims.

In his class action complaint, Register alleges that he signed up for the Gold Card program in 2015 after years of being a loyal GNC customer. He says that he signed up again the following year, but was dismayed when GNC pulled the program. The plaintiff alleges that his $15 fee entitled him to three more months of discounts at the nutritional supplement chain.

The plaintiff seeks to represent a nationwide Class of those who purchased a GNC program membership in the United States after Dec. 1, 2015, along with a New Jersey subclass.

The plaintiff is seeking all recoverable compensatory and other damages, along with statutory damages, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.

Register is represented by James C. Shah and Natalie Finkelman Bennett of Shepherd Finkelman Miller & Shah LLP.

The GNC Gold Card Program Class Action Lawsuit is Register v. GNC Holdings Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-01320, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.