Pricing

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A major point-of-sale financing and leasing company and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have reached a proposed settlement to resolve an investigation into whether the company’s practices and representations to retail consumers violated the FTC Act. The announcement of the settlement highlights the importance of disclosing all material pricing terms to consumers, including in an e-commerce environment and, for point-of-sale financing companies, reviewing and synchronizing their promotional messages with retail partners. The settlement also revealed disagreements among the Commissioners on issues of individual liability and the proper measure of monetary relief.

The settlement resolves an investigation into Aaron’s, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Progressive Leasing (Progressive), regarding disclosures related to lease-to-own and other financial products. Under the proposed agreement, which remains subject to the approval of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Progressive would make a payment of $175 million to the FTC and enhance certain of its compliance-related activities, including monitoring, disclosures, and reporting.Continue Reading FTC Settlement Underscores Importance of Pricing Disclosures for Lease-to-Own Companies

Following the Trump administration’s declaration of a public health emergency at the end of January, numerous states have successively declared states of emergency due to the coronavirus health crisis.  These declarations triggered many states’ price gouging laws, which typically outlaw the sale or rental of essential goods and services, for example, water, toilet paper, protective masks, hand sanitizer, fuel, power, etc., at an unconscionable or unreasonably high price.  In states without price gouging laws, lawmakers are drafting legislation prohibiting similar acts and are using state consumer protection laws to prosecute price gouging behavior in the interim.  Nationwide, state attorneys general are aggressively enforcing price gouging laws.  Moreover, on March 25, 33 state attorneys general sent letters to the CEOs of Amazon, Craigslist, and several other online platforms calling on the companies to take measures to prevent price gouging on their online platforms.

While the concept of price gouging is not a new one — many of these laws have been on the books for years and were used to prosecute bad actors after events such as 9/11, hurricanes, and even particularly bad flu years — what is unusual now is the national scope of the coronavirus emergency and the level of involvement of the federal government.  On Monday, March 23, the president signed an executive order to prevent hoarding and price gouging of crucial medical supplies. It authorizes criminal prosecution of anyone whose purchases exceed reasonable limits. Attorney General Barr concurrently announced that the Justice Department has already launched hoarding investigations to carry out the order.  Add this to the (majority of) states pursuing the issue along with the online platforms, and the risk that accompanies violation of the price gouging laws increases significantly — particularly if you sell medical supplies and equipment. 
Continue Reading Caveat Venditor: Coronavirus Emergency Declarations Trigger Patchwork of Price Gouging Laws, Executive Order, Investigations

wine bottlesIs the government about to make it harder for companies to settle consumer class actions? The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch, in a Statement of Interest (Statement), has requested that a Judge set aside a proposed class action settlement that would enrich plaintiffs’ attorneys to the tune of nearly $2 million. Specifically, the DOJ…

ticket stubsWhen a widespread industry practice comes under regulatory scrutiny, companies that end up in the crosshairs sometimes fall back on the “everyone does it” defense. This argument has an intuitive appeal in the consumer-protection context—consumers are presumably aware of practices that are common across an entire industry, the thinking goes, and they make purchasing decisions with knowledge of these practices.

The online ticket reseller StubHub recently tried this approach at NAD. It didn’t go over so well.

NAD launched an inquiry into StubHub’s fee-disclosure practices to determine whether consumers were being misled about the total cost of tickets sold on the site because StubHub does not disclose the service fees when it initially displays the ticket price. StubHub discloses the fees, which can range from 24% to 29% of the ticket cost, only at the time of checkout, after the consumer has already made the decision to buy the tickets. NAD was concerned that consumers do their comparative shopping when they see the initial price display—not at the time of checkout, when the true cost of the ticket is revealed—and thus are misled into believing that the StubHub tickets are cheaper than they are.Continue Reading “Everyone Does It” Doesn’t Fly at NAD

a gas station damaged during Hurricane HarveyThose of us living outside the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast region have looked on in disbelief and sadness as unrelenting rain has inundated those areas. The tragedy, though, has also reminded us of the better parts of our nature as we have seen countless examples of stranger helping stranger. However, from time to time Texas law enforcement officials have also reminded us of the worst parts of our nature as they have warned businesses against price gouging and the severe penalties associated with such activity.

Which led us to wonder, what is price gouging in the state of Texas? How is it different from the general rules of supply and demand? Doesn’t everything always cost more around the holidays? Has socialism infiltrated Texas? So we decided to take a look.Continue Reading Price Gouging in the News

We wanted to alert retail readers to these developments in price advertising laws in the United Kingdom from our friends at Lewis Silkin.

Late last year new U.K. Pricing Practices Guidelines were published by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, replacing the long standing guidelines which retailers and advertisers had been following for many years.

The new Guidelines are not just an edit of the old ones. They are a root and branch reform, taking a “principles-based” approach to the advertising of prices, consistent with the same principles based approach enshrined in the Consumer Protection Regulations 2008.Continue Reading Guest Blog: The U.K. Pricing Practices Guidelines Are Now in Force – Are You Compliant?

We know that many of you not only deal with advertising but are also proud to count yourself as among the elite few who wrestle with the intricacies of the Robinson-Patman Act. If that sounds like you, read on as our own Rob Davis analyzes a recent 7th Circuit decision. If not, then stand at ease and remain blissfully ignorant of price discrimination, “like grade and quality,” promotional allowances and other such terms.

The Seventh Circuit’s Robinson-Patman Decision: What Does “Promote” Really Mean?

It might surprise many in the “real world” (which for these purposes means everyone other than antitrust/competition lawyers), but to the antitrust bar, the Robinson-Patman Act is the red-headed stepchild of competition law. Whereas competition law is now focused entirely on consumer welfare and the preservation of competition rather than the profits of competitors—even the small ones—the Robinson-Patman Act is almost obstinately about protecting the little guy. Thus, for years antitrust lawyers and the FTC have been tying themselves into knots to make the Act play well with the other antitrust laws, to varying levels of success.

Enter Clorox Bleach and the Seventh Circuit’s awkward decision in Woodman’s Food Market v. Clorox Company and Clorox Sales Company.Continue Reading The Seventh Circuit’s Robinson-Patman Decision: What Does “Promote” Really Mean?

We all love a good bargain, but sometimes a good deal seems too good to be true.  In 2011, Cynthia Spann went bargain-hunting at a California J.C. Penney, and walked out convinced that she had saved over 30%.  However, she later discovered the products she bought at a “bargain” price had never really been sold at full price.  As we have written previously, pricing and discounting claims are a frequent target of FTC enforcement actions, competitive challenges at the National Advertising Division, and plaintiffs’ attorneys.   After learning about the alleged false discounting, Spann brought a class action on February 8, 2012, alleging violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law, California’s False Advertising Law, and California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act.  On May 18, 2015, the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted certification of the class action, serving as a timely reminder for retailers and businesses everywhere that businesses must carefully monitor pricing practices to ensure compliance with state and federal law regarding false and deceptive pricing.

According to Spann’s complaint, J.C. Penney’s false advertising campaign was “massive, years-long, pervasive[,] [and] consistent across all” private and exclusive brands of apparel and accessories.  The essential aspects of the advertising campaign are familiar to many American shoppers: J.C. Penney stores and websites would feature both an “original” or “regular” price and a substantial dollar/percentage discount, reinforcing the message that the customer had received a bargain by including a line for “Total Savings Today” on receipts.  As the FTC notes in its Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, this is a totally legitimate form of advertising as long as the original/regular price is genuine; that is, “the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time.”  However, if “the former price being advertised is not bona fide but fictitious”—in other words, if an “inflated price was established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction”—then “the ‘bargain’ being advertised is a false one.”  California law is also rather clear on this topic:  “No price shall be advertised as a former price of any advertised thing, unless the alleged former price was the prevailing market price as above defined within three months next immediately preceding the publication of the advertisement.”Continue Reading Court Grants Class Cert. in Deceptive Pricing Action Against Clothing Retailer

While many focus important questions such as whether or not to brine the turkey and whether to cook the stuffing inside or outside of the bird, many of our clients focus on bigger issues of whether the holiday sales season will put the company in the red or the black.  What used to be just a push for Black Friday, and then extended to include Cyber Monday, now includes pre-Black Friday and specials through December.  In this busy shopping season, retailers are trying to drive traffic, sell merchandise, and clear out winter inventory in anticipation of the coming year.  Shoppers are looking for a bargain and that perfect gift.  Sunday papers, email inboxes, and television commercials all boldly proclaim the greatest sales of the year, and consumers definitely take notice.  With fast moving inventory and quickly changing stock levels, there are times when a retailer might run out of certain items.  Retailers in this position need to pay careful attention to consumer protection laws.

In 2011, as part of its systematic review of all of the agency’s rules and guides, the FTC opened a public note and comment period for the Retail Food Store Advertising and Marketing Practices Rule, better known as the “Unavailability Rule,” to consider whether the rule should be expanded to cover other retailers.  On November 19, 2014, the Commission decided to keep the Rule unchanged.  This means that the Unavailability Rule still only applies to retail food stores. Still, other retailers would be wise to take this Rule’s guidance to heart.
Continue Reading The Unavailability Rule: After the Turkey and Stuffing, Avoiding the Bait-and-Switch?