Panera class action alleges restaurant falsely advertises delivery costs

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Panera delivery class action overview:

• Who: A Panera delivery customer is suing the company.
• Why: The plaintiff says the company falsely advertised free, $1 or flat-fee delivery.
• Where: The Panera delivery class action was filed in an Illinois federal court.

Panera lies to customers by promising to provide free, $1 or flat fee, low-cost delivery on food deliveries ordered through its app and website and then loading on hidden fees, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Lisa Ladonski filed the class action lawsuit against Panera LLC on Feb. 22 in an Illinois federal court, alleging violations of state and federal consumer laws. 

According to the lawsuit, to appeal to consumers in a crowded food delivery marketplace, Panera prominently marketed a FREE, $1 or flat fee, low-cost “Delivery Fee” in its mobile app and its website. 

Consumers understand the promises to represent the total marginal cost they will pay for having Panera food delivered to their homes, over and above what they would pay if they picked up food in-store, Ladonski says.

“Panera’s ‘Delivery Fee’ representations, however, were and are false,” the lawsuit alleges. “Panera actually imposes additional, hidden delivery charges on its customers that far exceed the promise of FREE, $1 or flat fee, low-cost delivery.”

Panera hid the menu price inflation, lawsuit states

Specifically, Panera secretly marks up food prices for delivery orders only by 5% to 7%, Ladonski says. In other words, the identical sandwich costs approximately $1 more when ordered for delivery than when ordered via the same mobile app for pickup, versus when ordered in-store.

“This secret menu price markup was specifically designed to cover the costs of delivering food and profit on that delivery,” she says. “It was, in short, exclusively a charge for using Panera’s delivery service and was, therefore, a delivery charge.”

Panera ensured food prices were only displayed on the app or website after a customer chose delivery or pickup, ensuring delivery customers could not see the price inflation, Ladonski says. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Panera customers were assessed hidden delivery charges they did not bargain for, she adds.

Ladonski seeks to represent anyone in Illinois who ordered food delivery through the Panera mobile app or website and were charged higher delivery fees than represented.

She is suing for violations of Illinois consumer laws and breach of contract and seeks damages, injunctive relief that fairly allows consumers to decide whether they will pay Panera’s delivery mark-ups, fees, costs and a jury trial.

Meanwhile, Panera Bread has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it misleads consumers with its Unlimited Sip Club subscription by not actually allowing unlimited drinks and not clearly outlining how to cancel the auto-renewing subscription.

Did you get unexpected delivery fees on your Panera order? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Shamis & Gentile PA, Edelsberg Law PA and Kaliel Gold PLLC.

The Panera class action lawsuit is Lisa Ladonski, et al. v. Panera LLC, Case No. 1:23-cv-01101 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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