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Walmart is facing a class action lawsuit that alleged the retailer overcharged customers with “deceptive and unfair pricing practices.”
Plaintiff Yoram Kahn alleged that the world’s largest retailer “takes advantage of consumers in Illinois and across the country with deceptive and unfair pricing practices.”
Kahn said that while the price differences were small, they “add up to hundreds of millions of dollars each year.”
“Kahn alleges that Walmart is aware of these discrepancies between shelf prices and checkout prices and that the unfair and deceptive pricing practices are widespread and ongoing,” he said.
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Walmart has been working with celebrities for years to create their own affordable product lines. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
Kahn claimed that on August 2, 2022, he shopped for groceries at a Walmart store in Niles, Illinois, and relied on the prices displayed, but noticed a significant markup at checkout.
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“When Kahn paid, the actual prices of these six items turned out to be ten to fifteen percent above the retail price,” the court ruled.
“In total, Kahn paid Walmart $1.89 in overcharges for these six items, nearly seven percent of the total pre-tax amount of his account,” they said. “Small change for Kahn as an individual, no doubt, but consider the size of Walmart’s business.”
The 7th U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago on Wednesday reversed a lower court’s ruling and ruled that consumers can try to prove that Walmart used a fraudulent “bait-and-switch” method that violated state consumer protection laws.
The plaintiff alleged that Walmart violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and other states’ consumer protection laws.
Self-checkout, Walmart megastore, North Carolina. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The court also disagreed with Walmart’s argument that providing receipts after purchases negates the unfairness caused by incorrect shelf prices.
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Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.