IKEA Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Coupon Return Policy

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A class action lawsuit challenges IKEA’s coupon and return policy, arguing that IKEA’s practice of applying a coupon to all items purchased and then only refunding the price after the discount when the customer returns an item violates its own policy of giving customers a “full refund.”

Plaintiff Bennett Beer says he had a coupon from IKEA that promised $25 off of a purchase of $150 or more, and that on July 8, 2018 he visited an IKEA store in Conshohocken, Pa., and spent a total of $351.99, before tax.

Beer claims that he used his $25 coupon on this purchase, and so his total was reduced to $326.99, then a six percent sales tax was applied.

The IKEA class action lawsuit states that two days later Beer went back to the same store to return a shelving unit that he purchased when using his coupon.

Beer says that the purchase price of the shelving unit was $79, but he was only given credit for $73.39, plus tax.

The IKEA coupon class action lawsuit claims that this was done because IKEA does not subtotal all of the items in a person’s purchase and then apply a $25 discount, but instead “calculates the ratio the $25 reflects across all purchases and applies that ratio to reduce the price of each item,” which caused him to receive only $73.39 back for an item that was originally priced at $79.

Beer argues that that method of calculating a discount caused him to effectively receive less than the promised $25 off from the coupon, because his purchase was still more than $150 even after he returned the shelving unit, so had he never purchased the shelving unit, he would have been able to use the coupon and receive $25 off his purchase.

The IKEA discount class action lawsuit claims that IKEA’s method of calculating a discount this way caused him to have to pay more for his full purchase after he returned the shelving unit than he would have if he had not returned the shelving unit at all.

The IKEA coupon class action lawsuit says that “Mr. Beer should have been out of pocket $247.99 after his return. Instead, he was out of pocket $250.60, or about $2.61 more than he should have been.”

The IKEA discount class action lawsuit says that this method of refunding a consumer less than the purchase price of an item when they used a $25 off coupon directly contradicts IKEA’s “promises and representations” of its refund policy, and does not honor the “explicit terms of its own coupon offerings.”

Allegedly, IKEA profits from what Beer calls its “fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair conduct.” He says that by making promises of a full refund and promising certain benefits with advertised coupons, and then breaking those promises, IKEA tricks customers into making purchases that they otherwise might not have, might have made elsewhere, or for a lower price.

Beer says that IKEA unjustly enriched itself by not returning the full value of items purchased.

The plaintiff seeks damages on behalf of himself and all other similarly affected U.S. consumers.

Beer is represented by Richard M. Golomb, Kenneth J. Grunfeld, and David J. Stanoch of Golomb & Honik PC.

The IKEA Coupon Return Policy Class Action Lawsuit is Bennett Beer v. IKEA North America Services LLC d/b/a IKEA, Case No. 2:18-cv-03961-RK, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.