ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Attorney General announced Tuesday an agreement with Price Chopper that requires the company to change the way it advertises and promotes its coupons in the state and pay a $100,000 penalty.
AG Eric Schneiderman says the agreement was the result of an investigation by his office, which "came about following complaints about misleading coupons issued by Price Chopper that failed to disclose restrictions," Schneiderman says.
"In the current economy, it is more important than ever that consumers be presented with clear information about the terms and conditions of coupons and other sale offers," said Attorney General Schneiderman. "Price Chopper used deceptive business practices to mislead price-conscious consumers and extract hard-earned money from them by hindering their ability to shop competitively and save on groceries. Today's agreement ensures that consumers will be protected from misleading advertising at these stores in the future."
The AG says their investigation revealed that Price Chopper advertised they accepted double coupons without disclosing important restrictions that applied to that policy.
According to the investigation, after implementing a corporate-wide policy that limited the doubling of coupons "up to 99 cents," Price Chopper failed to disclose this restriction in its advertisements leading consumers to believe that $1.00 coupons would be doubled.
Prior to this corporate policy, Price Chopper's double coupon policies had previously varied from store to store. A number of stores doubled coupons up to $1.00 whereas others restricted the face value of coupons that could be doubled.
Schneiderman says restrictions on double coupons can make a significant difference in savings, must be clear to consumers who shop on a budget. In just April and May of 2012, Price Chopper shoppers redeemed 34,616,602 coupons valued at $.99 or greater; approximately 8 million of these were valued at $1.00 or more.
Under the terms of the agreement announced today, Price Chopper is required to clearly and conspicuously disclose any face value limits on coupon redemption. In addition to changing advertising practices, Price Chopper agreed to pay $100,000 in civil penalties and costs to the State.
In New York State, Price Chopper has 79 stores statewide.
Price Chopper released the following statement regarding the Attorney General's investigation:
"We were appalled and disappointed by the inflammatory press
release distributed earlier today by the New York State Office of the Attorney
General (OAG), as its portrayal of Price Chopper's conduct is false, misleading
and inaccurate in significant respects, and is not supported by the Assurance of
Discontinuance (AOD) to which Price Chopper agreed. In fact, contrary to the
Press Release, the AOD makes no assertion that Price Chopper acted intentionally
to harm consumers or that its practices caused any losses, let alone millions of
lost savings to its customers. We've been in direct contact with the OAG to
express our concerns and are awaiting their response.
What the OAG actually asserts in the AOD is that Price
Chopper inconsistently denoted in its advertising the dollar value limit of its
double coupon policy during select weeks in June 2011, January 2012 and April
2012 in Syracuse and Cortland, NY. Our decision to sign this agreement was
reached after considering the likely cost of alternative actions, and because
settling the matter will allow us to focus on serving our customers, including
offering double coupons up to $.99 in all 130 of our stores."
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