Rite Aid Class Action Says Charity Donations Collected Without Consent

A class action lawsuit claims that Rite Aid automatically opts customers into donating to the KidsCents charity without their consent.

Plaintiff Katherine Martinez says a KidCents donation was regularly charged to her without her knowledge during multiple purchases she made from Rite Aid’s stores.

The Rite Aid class action lawsuit states that the company’s practice of enrolling customers into the charity program without their knowledge or consent violates multiple California statutes that aim to protect consumers.

The plaintiff is seeking an injunction to prevent the company from continuing to violate these statutes.

Martinez claims that sometime before December 2018, she made a purchase from a Rite Aid location in San Diego.

The Rite Aid class action lawsuit states that during the checkout process, she was opted into the Rite Aid Foundation’s KidsCents program, and as a consequence, Rite Aid rounded every transaction associated with Martinez’s Wellness card to the whole dollar.

Rite Aid reportedly retains the difference to donate to the KidsCents charity after taking a percentage for itself.

According to Martinez, this process continues indefinitely or at least until the customer opts out of the program.

The Rite Aid automatic charity donation class action lawsuit argues that at no time did Martinez knowingly consent to donate to the charity on a continuing basis. She says that over the course of a few months, Rite Aid took a total of $2.56 from her without her knowledge or consent.

Allegedly, Rite Aid sets up the donations in a way that is “inherently misleading and confusing to consumers,” especially to senior citizens.

The Rite Aid KidsCents class action claims that this practice has resulted in money being taken from Martinez and other customers without their consent.

Martinez’s Rite Aid class action lawsuit asserts that Rite Aid knew or should have known that the donations were misleading, because many consumers have complained about being opted into the program without their consent, but the company has taken no action to correct the problem.

The Rite Aid KidsCents class action asserts that a review of the online comments about the program indicates that a majority of consumers were opted into the program without their knowledge.

According to Martinez, since 2014, customers have complained that the opt-in is misleading, and that nothing warns customers of the program details. Some consumers have reportedly criticized Rite Aid for this “underhanded way to get people to contribute to a charity.”

Allegedly, Rite Aid ties all donations to the KidsCents program to a Wellness card, and every time a customer enters in their phone number associated with their card or swipes their physical card, they can have the donation charged to them.

According to the Rite Aid charity class action, after a cardholder is opted into the program, any time they use their Wellness card, they will be charged for the KidsCents program.

Martinez is represented by Abbas Kazerounian, Jason Ibey, and Nicholas Barthel of Kazerouni Law Group APC, and by Joshua B. Swigart of Hyde & Swigart.

The Rite Aid KidsCents Charity Donation Class Action Lawsuit is Katherine Martinez v. Rite Aid Corporation, Case No. 3:19-cv-00569-H-NLS, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.