Pier 1 Class Action Says Coupons Illegally Applied After Tax

A class action lawsuit claims Pier 1 Imports charges too much Pennsylvania sales tax on items purchased with a coupon.

The Pier 1 Imports class action lawsuit was filed by Carol Finlon who says that on multiple occasions, she purchased items from stores in the Pittsburgh area using coupons promising her $20 and $30 off her purchase.

On each shopping trip, her Pier 1 coupons were allegedly applied after sales tax had been calculated and not before.

Finlon argues that Pier 1 charged her too much in sales tax by deducting the discount after tax had been calculated and added on to the full price of the item.

According to the Pier 1 sales tax class action, Pennsylvania law requires that retailers calculate discounts before tax is calculated, then calculate tax after the discount has been applied.

The Pier 1 class action lawsuit asserts that customers end up paying more in sales tax if the discount is calculated post-tax. Allegedly, Pier 1 profits from this practice because in Pennsylvania, retailers receive a commission for the taxes they collect.

The Pier 1 discount class action lawsuit goes on to say that Pier 1 made a uniform practice of improperly calculating the discount post-tax, so it may have made millions of dollars from collecting sales tax commissions.

Finlon asserts that a class action lawsuit is a proper pathway for litigating this issue because although each customers might have only been charged a small amount of money in excess of what they should have been charged, the practice may have added up to millions of dollars in improperly gained profits for the company.

The Pier 1 Imports sales class action lawsuit asserts that Pier 1 continues to engage in the practice of calculating discounts after sales tax has been applied.

Finlon seeks damages on behalf of herself and similarly affected consumers, and seeks an injunction barring Pier 1 from continuing to engage in the practice.

The plaintiff says that she and other customers were financially injured by Pier 1 because they might not have purchased the items they did had they known that they would not receive the amount of discount that was advertised to them.

She claims that Pier 1 was unjustly enriched by this practice, saying “under the circumstances, it would be against equity and good conscience to allow Pier 1 to retain ill-gotten befits they relied from plaintiff and class members, in light of the fact that Pier 1 used illegal, deceptive, and/or unfair practices to force customers to pay excessive sales tax.”

The Pier 1 Imports coupon class action lawsuit says that the company violated Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law because it misled customers about how much they would be receiving in discounts.

Finlon is represented by R. Bruce Carlson and James P. McGraw of Carlson Lynch LLP.

The Pier 1 Imports Sales Tax Class Action Lawsuit is Finlon v. Pier 1 Imports Inc., Case No. GD-19-009229, in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

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