Safeway to Pay $41.9M to End Grocery Delivery Class Action

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A California federal judge has agreed to a $41.9 million judgment that will end a Safeway class action lawsuit that accused the supermarket giant of charging more for products sold through its online grocery delivery service than at a physical store.

U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar gave his approval for the Safeway online grocery class action lawsuit settlement which will award $31 million to Class Members as well as $10.9 million in prejudgement interest.

Court documents indicate Safeway may appeal the final judgment.

Lead plaintiff Michael Rodman filed the Safeway class action lawsuit in 2011 after he allegedly discovereing that prices were higher on Safeway.com than they were at his local Safeway store. Rodman alleges that this was in breach of contract because according to the terms and conditions, the online grocery service “promised, with certain exceptions, that the prices charged for on Safeway.com would be the same as the prices charged in the physical store from which the groceries were selected and delivered.”

The Safeway grocery delivery class action lawsuit states that Safeway marked up each item by 10 cents per dollar. For example, an item that would cost  $1 to $1.99 at a Safeway store would be priced 20 cents higher online, and an item that would cost $2 to $2.99 at a Safeway store, would be priced 30 cents higher online.

Judge Tigar granted Class certification of the Safeway lawsuit to include all Class Members who are U.S. residents who registered to purchase groceries through Safeway.com at any time prior to Nov. 15, 2011, and made one or more purchases subject to the price markup implemented on or about April 12, 2010. He ruled that Class Members will be entitled to the aggregate amount of the difference between the online store prices and physical store prices. This equates to $30,979,262.

However, Judge Tigar agreed with Safeway on a separate motion claiming that the company should not be held responsible for purchases of its online delivery service prior to 2006, since at that time the website was run by a third-party vendor.

Safeway Class Members who used Safeway.com multiple times during the Class Period can file multiple claims. The Safeway grocery delivery class action lawsuit will let individuals financially recover the total amount from each purchase made, meaning the supermarket’s liability is based on per-claim, rather than per-individual.

More information about the Safeway class action settlement was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

Rodman is represented by Steven A. Schwartz and Timothy N. Mathews of Chimicles & Tikellis LLP and James C. Shah and Rose F. Luzon of Shepherd Finkelman Miller & Shah LLP.

The Safeway Grocery Delivery Overpricing Class Action Lawsuit is Rodman v. Safeway Inc., Case No. 3:11-cv-03003, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Oct. 4, 2016, Safeway was ordered to pay $516,000 in discovery sanctions to a Class of grocery shoppers who claim they overpaid for online purchases.

UPDATE 2: December 2017, a $42 million judgment against Safeway is now being distributed to qualifying Class Members who were allegedly overcharged for online grocery delivery service. Learn more here.

UPDATE 3: On July 15, 2019, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks in the mail from the Safeway online delivery judgement worth as much as $2,289.83. Congratulations to everyone who got PAID!