Macy’s Class Action Lawsuit Says Online Shoppers are Overcharged

A new class action lawsuit alleges that Macy’s hits consumers with unauthorized charges over purchases made at the retailer’s online store.

Lead plaintiff Sherry Rostami states in the Macy’s unauthorized charges class action lawsuit that the company tells consumers that they will only pay for the purchase price of items in its online store.

However, alleges the plaintiff, Macy’s then bills additional amounts and consumers are not provided notice or a receipt for those amounts.

Rostami, a California resident, claims in the Macy’s class action lawsuit that she was shopping online in late 2016 and early 2017. She says that Macy’s broke the price of her purchases into multiple sums, but when she totaled the sums, they did not equal the price of the items advertised on the website.

The Macy’s unauthorized charges class action lawsuit alleges that the store “was using this tactic to deceive consumers, overcharging them for various, unexplained, and unauthorized amounts, which were larger than the purchase price for the items bought.”

The plaintiff says that in her case, Macy’s made more than $2,000 in unauthorized charges on her account since she started shopping on the retailer’s online store.

The Macy’s class action lawsuit states that although the charges are listed as belonging to Macys.com on her bank statements, her purchase history on her online shopping account with the store does not contain a record of the purchases.

“In addition, Plaintiff purchased several items that were later returned,” further contends the Macy’s unauthorized charges class action lawsuit. “Although her purchase history confirmed that she had been reimbursed for all of her returns, her bank statement did not reflect all of these reimbursements. From time to time, Defendant would redeposit money into Plaintiff’s account, but these reimbursements were not earmarked and did not correspond with her the reimbursements identified in her purchase history. On information and belief, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant owes Plaintiff thousands of dollars in reimbursements.”

The Macy’s unauthorized charges class action lawsuit argues that the store must be aware that it is falsely billing consumers for unauthorized charges through its online store. The plaintiff says it is unfair to consumers to falsely advertise their merchandise at a lower rate than they will actually pay.

“Defendant could have easily raised the price of its merchandise. Instead, Defendant deliberately chose to add these charges to the consumers’ bill after their purchases were complete. This made it less likely that the consumers would notice the additional charges,” alleges the Macy’s class action lawsuit.

According to the Macys.com class action lawsuit, many consumers do not end up noticing the unauthorized charges because of the confusing way Macy’s breaks up the total amount customers pay.

The Macy’s unauthorized charges class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of consumers who purchased items from Macys.com and were charged in addition to what they paid at checkout.

The plaintiff also seeks to represent a subclass of consumers covered by the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.

Rostami, and proposed Class, are represented by Joshua B. Swigart and Yana A. Hart of Hyde & Swigart APC.

The Macy’s Unauthorized Charges Class Action Lawsuit is Rostami v. Macy’s Inc., Case No. 3:18-cv-01449-BEN-WVG, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.