The Children’s Place Class Action Alleges False Reference Pricing Scheme

The Children’s Place False Reference Pricing Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: Gabriela Gonzalez filed a class action lawsuit against The Children’s Place, Inc.
• Why: Gonzalez claims The Children’s Place uses a tactic called false reference pricing to make sale items on its website appear to have a greater discount than what is the case. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court.

The Children’s Place uses false reference pricing to deceive consumers into believing they are getting a greater discount than they actually are, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Gabriela Gonzalez claims The Children’s Place advertises “fictitious” original prices to give its customers what amount to “phantom discounts.” 

“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,” The Children’s Place class action states. 

Gonzalez claims that, in addition to a discount, The Children’s Place induces consumers into buying their products by making it seem like they are worth more than what they actually are. 

Further, Gonzalez argues the false reference pricing tactic “artificially inflates the true market price for these products” since it raises a consumers’ “internal reference price.”

The Children’s Place Class Action Alleges Sale Items Above True Market Value

“Consequently, false reference pricing schemes enable retailers, like Defendant, to sell products above their true market price and value—and consumers are left to pay the price,” The Children’s Place class action states. 

Gonzalez says she relied on alleged false reference prices set by The Children’s Place for her purchase of four separate boy’s clothing bottoms in February. 

“After observing the original price of the item and the accompanying sale price, Plaintiff believed she was receiving a significant discount on the products she had chosen,” The Children’s Place class action states. 

Gonzalez claims, however, that she later discovered the products that were offered for sale had never been listed on The Children’s Place website for the listed original price as represented. 

“Neither Plaintiff’s receipt nor any other language on the website observed or relied upon by Plaintiff indicated that the product was not offered previously at the advertised reference price,” The Children’s Place class action states.

Gonzalez claims The Children’s Place is in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act. 

Gonzalez wants to represent a California class of consumers who have made a purchase from The Children’s Place website that was marked as discounted from what allegedly turned out to be a false reference price. 

Plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and requesting injunctive and declaratory relief along with actual, statutory and punitive damages for herself and all class members. 

The Children’s Place previously agreed to pay $6.8 million last year to resolve claims the company used false reference pricing for products for sale on its website. 

Have you purchased a product from The Children’s Place that was listed as for sale? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Todd D. Carpenter and Scott G. Braden of Lynch Carpenter LLP. The Class Action Lawsuit is Gonzalez v. The Children’s Place, Inc., et al., Case No. 8:22-cv-00816, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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