Father’s Day Cookout Claims that May Flame Out
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BevMo’s 5¢ Sales
A settlement agreement reached between the parties in a false advertising class-action lawsuit against BevMo, an alcoholic beverage retailer in the western United States, is scheduled for a final approval hearing on July 27, 2015.
The complaint alleged that BevMo deceptively marketed its “5¢ sale.” Specifically, plaintiffs claimed that the company represented that consumers who paid the “ClubBev!” (i.e., the regular or usual) price for one bottle of wine would get a second bottle for only 5¢ when, in reality, BevMo marked up the price of the first bottle. As a result, consumers were not paying the regular price or getting the approximate 50% discount (i.e., two bottles of wine for the price of one bottle plus 5 cents) that the company marketed.
The proposed settlement agreement provides class members with $1 coupons towards a BevMo purchase (each class member will receive one coupon for each two-bottle set of wine that they purchased). The proposed agreement also requires BevMo to maintain changes that it has already made to the advertising of the 5 Cent Sale for as long as it continues the sale. Those changes are: (1) removing the term “ClubBev” near the price that the consumer must pay for the first bottle of wine; and (2) informing consumers that the price they pay for the first bottle of wine is an “undiscounted” price.
For more information, go to fivecentsalesettlement.com.
(Gray et al v. Beverages & More Inc., Case No. CGC-493678, Superior Court of the State of California, San Francisco County)
For more information about the misleading marketing of alcohol and TINA.org’s coverage of the issue, click here.
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