NEWARK, New Jersey (Legal Newsline) — AutoZone Inc. will pay $47,500 and revise its business practices after allegedly failing to plainly mark total selling prices on certain merchandise at many of its New Jersey stores, the office of New Jersey acting Attorney General Robert Lougy has announced.
Merchandise scanned at the cash register of these stores often allegedly showed higher than the prices where the merchandise had been displayed.
“Consumers have a right to know the price of merchandise before they remove it from the shelves” Lougy said. “Requiring consumers to wait until they are in a checkout line to discover the price deprives consumers of the opportunity to make an informed decision as to purchases and is in direct violation of our consumer protection laws.”
AutoZone entered into a consent order. From this point, it will conduct weekly merchandise price audits, develop best practices for pricing accuracy and provide pricing training to employees and store managers.
“AutoZone has agreed to implement internal oversights to ensure that merchandise is priced accurately,” said Steve Lee, acting director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. “Consumers will directly benefit from such reforms and we expect continued cooperation with AutoZone and careful adherence to the terms of the consent order.”