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A California man says J. Crew has been duping its outlet store customers with a deceptive pricing scheme.
Plaintiff Adam Press is challenging the pricing strategies used at J. Crew Factory and J. Crew Mercantile stores, alleging that it is designed to mislead consumers. He says defendant J. Crew Inc. uses arbitrary reference prices to make the actual prices on merchandise at these stores seem like better deals than they actually are.
According to this J. Crew class action lawsuit, J. Crew marks the merchandise at these stores with two different prices. One price, the higher of the two, is a reference price that purportedly represents the original price or regular price for which that item is usually offered for sale.
The other, lower price is the price for which the J. Crew Factory or J. Crew Mercantile store is actually offering it for sale.
This dual-pricing tactic is used to pull the wool over shoppers’ eyes, Press claims. He says the reference price is completely made up so that the actual sale price will seem like a better bargain than it actually is.
“Defendant represented – on the price tags of J. Crew Factory and Mercantile Products – Reference Prices that were overstated and did not represent a bona fide price at which the J. Crew Factory and Mercantile Products were previously sold,” Press claims.
“Nor was the advertised Reference Price a prevailing market retail price within three months immediately preceding the publication of the advertised former prices, as required by California law,” the lawsuit states.
Press says the merchandise tagged with this allegedly misleading pricing was ordered and manufactured exclusively for sale at J. Crew Factory and J. Crew Mercantile. Therefore there’s no “regular” price for these items other than the prices at which those stores offer them.
The stores never offer these items at the marked reference price, Press alleges.
Furthermore, he claims this practice violates California state law that governs the advertisement of reference prices. In California, a marked reference price must have been the prevailing retail price for which the item was offered for sale within the few months preceding the advertisement.
Federal guidelines published by the FTC also say that the use of fictional reference pricing can be impermissibly deceptive, Press claims.
Press’s allegations echo those raised by New York plaintiff Caron Coladonato in another J. Crew class action lawsuit earlier this month. Coladonato claims that items offered as part of a “50% Off Everything” sale were never offered at the full price, making the sale price the true “regular” price for those items.
Press proposes to bring his claims on behalf of a statewide plaintiff Class that would include all persons who, within the state of California and within the four years preceding the filing of this complaint, purchased items from J. Crew Factory or J. Crew Mercantile that were offered at a purported discount from a marked reference price, and who did not receive a refund or credit for that purchase.
He is asking the court to order disgorgement and restitution of all revenues J. Crew has gained as a result of the allegedly deceptive pricing practice. He also seeks equitable relief, including a requirement that J. Crew conduct a corrective advertising campaign.
Press is represented by attorneys Richard D. Lambert and Gene J. Stonebarger of Stonebarger Law, Zev B. Zysman of Law Offices of Zev B. Zysman, and Thomas A. Kearney and Prescott W. Littlefield of Kearney Littlefield LLP.
The J. Crew False Reference Price Class Action Lawsuit is Adam Press v. J. Crew Inc., Case No. 2:17-cv-04315, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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