Primanti Bros. Class Action Lawsuit Settlement

A well-known Pittsburgh sandwich shop chain will offer free sandwiches to thousands of customers and donate $25,000 as part of a class action lawsuit settlement for violating credit card disclosure laws.

The Primanti Bros. settlement was approved last week by a federal judge, who found the sandwich shop chain guilty of printing too much credit card information on customers’ receipts, a violation of federal law.

Under the terms of the class action settlement, Primanti Bros. will offer customers at the South Side Pittsburgh store a free sandwich and side item if they can prove they used a credit or debit card while eating at the location during a 19-month period between July 28, 2008 and February 19, 2010. More than 49,000 purchases were made during this time.

Primanti Bros. will also make a $25,000 donation to Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and pay up to $62,000 in attorneys’ fees as part of the credit card disclosure settlement.

The Primanti Bros. join a multitude of other businesses across the country who have been sued in class action lawsuits for either printing too much credit card information on customers’ receipts or asking for personal identification information, such as their address and other personally identifying information, as part of the transaction. The California Supreme Court recently ruled that it’s illegal for store clerks to ask customers for their ZIP codes during credit card transactions, leading to a flood of class action lawsuits against such big-name stores as Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Williams-Sonoma and Cost Plus.