Retail beverage giant BevMo! will pay $359,000 to resolve a consumer protection lawsuit brought by a group of district attorney’s offices contending that the Concord-based company sometimes charged customers more than the lowest posted or advertised price for items.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office joined with prosecutors in San Diego, Riverside and Santa Barbara counties to bring the lawsuit. A San Diego County Superior Court judge approved the judgment on Dec. 4.
“Companies have a responsibility to ensure they are honoring the prices they are advertising,” said Tiyen Lin, a Santa Clara County deputy district attorney who worked on the case. “Consumers can help hold companies
accountable by checking their receipts.”
The law prohibits California businesses from charging an amount greater than an item’s lowest advertised price.
BevMo!, with its headquarters on Willow Pass Road in Concord, operates more than 100 stores in California and Arizona.
The case stemmed from regularly scheduled state Weights and Measures Office inspections over the past four years that uncovered scanner overcharges in Santa Clara County and elsewhere, including the other three counties involved in the suit, Lin said.
The inspections are routinely performed on “instruments of commerce” like price scanners and gas pumps to make sure they are measuring accurately.
The final judgment requires BevMo! to perform monthly audits to confirm that items are being priced as advertised, and to enact a “scan-right guarantee program” in its California stores. The company will provide refunds through its customer loyalty program, which Lin said can track program-member customers who were overcharged.
The $359,000 settlement amount will pay for the costs of investigation, plus refunds to specific customers, contributions to a consumer protection trust fund and penalties, Lin said.
photo credit: Alison C. Yelp.com
Booze price increase coming to pay for this.
Yes. And right after that, they’ll investigate moving their headquarters to Texas, a much friendlier business state. Just ask Chevron and Toyota and the other two hundred companies that got out.
Business gets caught red-handed ripping customers off by Weights and Measures Office, therefore California has an anti-business climate? I disagree with that conclusion. Does it chap your hides every time you see those current inspection stickers on gas pumps, knowing that the Commiefornia inspectors are slithering around making sure that you’re not buying “about” a gallon?
I am an alcoholic. Those pennies quickly add up to real money.
Yes, a company is going to move to a state they don’t even do business in. That makes so much sense. What’s with this love obsession with big business? The more they screw you over the more you like it. Heaven forbid we hold businesses accountable.
Noj- So what? That still doesn’t justify ripping off customers!!! It’s still wrong no matter what state you’re in.
Maybe the guy pictured in the previous story was working undercover for the DA’s office and decided to get some of that fine paid in merchandise.
Awesome. Pay off the money-grubbing lawyers, fund a politicians slush fund and accomplish nothing. “Specific customers” might get a $10 gift card from BevMo by spending hours submitting forms from the lawyers. However, if the customers are not white, john burris will get involved in an obvious racial discrimination case and sue the state and city taxpayers.
Terms of the settlement included the company agreeing to change its name to “ChargeMo”
Part of the settlement is for BevMo to refund money to affected customers. BevMo said they will use their loyalty program to identify customers who were overcharged.
The problem is that most of the time I visited without my loyalty card the cashiers used their card to get the sale to go through which means that most of the refund from this suit is going to them not me.