BJ’s Wholesale Sales Tax Class Action Lawsuit Gets Certified

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A plaintiff Class can now seek injunctive relief against BJ’s Wholesale Club for alleged tax law violations, following a judge’s grant of certification.

Florida Judge John W. Thornton certified a proposed Class who claims BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. unlawfully overcharges for sales tax on discounted items by calculating the tax based on the items’ full retail value.

In opposing Class certification, BJ’s Wholesale Club argued that the proposed Class would not be ascertainable solely by virtue of their BJ’s Wholesale Club memberships. Those memberships apply to the entire chain of stores across 15 states, not to any particular store or region within Florida, the company argued.

Judge Thornton dismissed that argument out of hand, saying that multi-state membership simply cannot negate the court’s power to stop any improper consumer practice within the state of Florida.

“This argument flies in the face of the explicit statutory grant of authority by the legislative and executive branches in adopting FDUTPA to confer on Florida courts the power to enjoin unfair and deceptive trade practices within Florida,” the judge wrote.

In plaintiff Laura Bugliaro’s original BJ’s Wholesale Club class action lawsuit, she claims she was overcharged for sales tax on a television she purchased from BJ’s Wholesale Club.

Though she paid a discounted sale price of $769.99 for the television, she says BJ’s Wholesale Club calculated the sales tax as a percentage of the television’s full $1,399.99 retail price. The alleged miscalculation resulted in an overcharge of $37.80, she claims.

The same thing happened again when she purchased a second television from BJ’s Wholesale Club, she alleges, resulting in a $12 overcharge.

Bugliaro claims BJ’s Wholesale Club is overcharging for sales taxes in this manner at all its Florida stores. Class Members who were hit with these alleged overcharges could number in the tens of thousands, she says.

In her BJ’s Wholesale Club class action lawsuit, Bugliaro argues these alleged overcharges violate Florida state sales tax law. Provisions of the Florida Administrative Code require retailers who offer merchandise at a discount to collect sales tax only on the discounted price, she says. She also alleges the tax collection practices at issue violate the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

On an earlier motion for summary judgment, Bugliaro won a finding from Judge Thornton that BJ’s Wholesale Club had been improperly calculating and collecting sales taxes on discounted merchandise.

BJ’s Wholesale Club has faced similar claims of unlawful tax collection before. Two customers from Pennsylvania brought claims in 2013 alleging BJ’s Wholesale Club overcharged them for sales tax based on the full price of items that they had used coupons to pay for.

Those claims were defeated when the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue issued a finding that BJ’s Wholesale Club had correctly calculated the sales tax according to Pennsylvania law.

The plaintiff is represented by Alan J. Kluger and Steve I. Silverman of Kluger Kaplan Silverman Katzen & Levine PL, and by Victor M. Diaz Jr. of V.M. Diaz & Partners.

The BJ’s Wholesale Club Unlawful Sales Tax Class Action Lawsuit is Bugliaro v. BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc., Case No. 2015-006256, in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.