Did You Receive an Email Offering a Children’s Place Discount?

If you received an email advertising discounts for Children’s Place, you may be eligible to join a class action lawsuit against the company. Children’s Place allegedly sent emails to consumers with deceptive subject lines stating that the entire site was discounted 40 to 70 percent off despite the fact that the products had never been sold for the higher, pre-discounted price.

Plaintiffs allege they were misled about the value, quality, and market price of the products offered by the Children’s Place. Under Washington state law, it is illegal to use false or misleading information in email subject lines in order to deceive consumers into purchasing your products or visiting your store.

Emails Offer Discounts For Children’s Place 

According to the Children’s Place website, email notifications are “the easiest way” to keep up with offers and their latest products. Unfortunately, according to suits filed against the company, Children’s Place email offers have not always been what they appear. According to Truth in Advertising Inc., market prices on the Children’s Place site were artificially inflated so that discounts could be used to lure in consumers. 

According to a class action lawsuit filed against the company in 2016, plaintiffs were offered discounts for Children’s Place via email marketing campaigns and in-store only to allegedly discover that the original price marked on the products was significantly higher than the price the product was ever actually sold for. Plaintiffs argued that they wouldn’t have made their purchases if they had known about the true value of the products they were buying.

What Are Your Rights? 

According to the Office of the Attorney General of Washington state, it is illegal to send unsolicited emails to consumers including false information regarding the sender, misleading information in the subject line, or a third party’s email address used without their permission. This law applies to emails sent to a Washington email address or from a Washington based computer. As long as information showing that the recipient email address is located in Washington is available, senders are considered liable for sending emails that are unlawful in Washington whether they were aware of that information or not. 

Federal law prohibits the use of misleading headers in email correspondence by advertisers. This means that senders must accurately represent who they are to recipients. It is also considered illegal to “initiate the transmission … of a commercial electronic mail message if such person has actual knowledge, or knowledge fairly implied… that a subject heading of the message would be likely to mislead a recipient… about a material fact”.

Responding to Discounts for Children’s Place

As mentioned above, in early 2016, a class action suit was filed against The Children’s Place Inc. on behalf of consumers who allegedly received misleading discounts for Children’s Place via a marketing email campaign. Plaintiff Monica R. alleges that Children’s Place “continually mislead consumers” by offering “phantom markdowns” on products that were marked pre-discount at a significantly higher price than they were ever sold.

This Children’s Place Ad suit is Case No. 3:16-cv-00370-GPC-JMA filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

As a part of the settlement reached between Monica R. and the Children’s Place, 800,000 vouchers will be provided to Class Members. These vouchers can be used online or in-store and are good for $6 off a purchase of any amount or 25 percent off the first $100 of a purchase. Members will be allowed to choose between the two types of vouchers which will be valid for six months.

UPDATE: March 2020, The Children’s Place fake sale class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

Join a Free The Children’s Place Email Lawsuit Investigation

If you live in Washington and you received one or more emails from The Children’s Place advertising percentage-off discounts, you may have a legal claim.

You don’t need to have made a purchase to qualify; you only need to have received an email with a percentage-off discount in the subject line (for example, “50% off EVERYTHING”).

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.