Ralph Lauren Class Action: Outlet Falsely Advertises Sale Price

A class action filed on May 2 alleges that Ralph Lauren Corp. and Ralph Lauren Retail Inc. misrepresented “sale” prices at Ralph Lauren outlet stores.

“Defendants would compare the ‘sale’ prices to false ‘market’ prices, which were misrepresented as the ‘market’ retail prices from which the ‘savings’ was discounted,” the complaint asserts. “The advertised discounts were nothing more than mere phantom markdowns because the represented market prices were artificially inflated and were not the original or ‘market’ prices for clothing and fashion apparel sold at Defendants’ retail outlet stores.”

In addition, the Ralph Lauren outlet store false advertising class action states that California law requires an item’s price to be the “prevailing market retail price” for that item for the three months before a sale. The class action contends that the so-called “market” prices of clothing items were in fact not the prevailing price of those items three months before their sale, in violation of that California consumer protection statute.

The class action alleges that Ralph Lauren outlet stores “prominently display” that items are “40% off” throughout the store. In actuality, the complaint argues, that “sale” price is the true market price, and the advertised savings of 40 percent is false and misleading.

Plaintiff Courtney Dennis states that in November of 2015 she purchased a polo shirt for her daughter at a Ralph Lauren Polo Factory Store in Carlsbad, Calif. The polo shirt was priced at $44.99, which was supposedly 40 percent off the “market” price of $74.99. Dennis says she relied on that advertised 40 percent discount, and believed that she was receiving “significant value” which led her to purchase the polo shirt. The complaint states that Dennis would not have purchased the polo shirt without the misrepresentations of sale prices made by Ralph Lauren.

The plaintiff seeks to represent a Class of “all individuals in the State of California who… purchased apparel at a discount at one of Defendants’ Polo Factory stores and/or retail outlet stores.” The class action requests restitution and damages for Ralph Lauren’s violations of California consumer protection laws. In addition, Dennis is asking the court to issue an order stopping Ralph Lauren from continuing the misleading and false advertising.

Ralph Lauren is not the only company accused of inflating sale prices at its outlet stores. Last December Michael Kors paid $4.8 million to settle a class action alleging that they used false “MSRP” tags on items in outlet stores.

The plaintiff is represented by Todd D. Carpenter, Edwin J. Kilpela, and Gary F. Lynch of Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter, LLP, and Deval R. Zaveri of Zaveri Tabb, APC.

The Ralph Lauren Outlet Store False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Courtney Dennis v. Ralph Lauren Corp., et al., Case No. 16-cv-01056, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.