TAMPA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - Products at Walmart are more expensive than they appear, a class action lawsuit filed in Florida federal court says.
Vassilios Kukorinis sued the retail giant Oct. 19 in Tampa federal court, alleging customers are being misled by price stickers in four ways. The suit takes aim at Walmart's claim that "a cornerstone of our business" is "our commitment to price leadership."
"The reality, however, is that Walmart uses unfair and deceptive business practices to deceivingly, misleadingly, and unjustly pilfer, to Walmart’s financial benefit, its customers’ hard-earned grocery dollars," the suit says.
The suit alleges Walmart falsely inflates product weight, mislabels the weight of bagged produce, overcharges on sold-by-weight clearance products and overcharges on sold-by-weight seafood products.
Walmart's software is programmed to falsify weights, the suit says.
"When Walmart employees have been confronted with evidence of the overcharges alleged herein, they (a) could not explain how weight falsification and unit pricing manipulation had occurred; (b) could not correct the weight and/or price information at check-out or were required to attempt to “override” the POS (often unsuccessfully); (c) acknowledged instances of prior improper pricing; and (d) expressed fear in losing their job if they acknowledged the wrongful pricing conduct," the suit says.
The firm Chimicles Schwartz is pursuing the case.