Four years ago, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs revealed that Whole Foods stores had been ripping off customers by overcharging them for pre-packaged items. The investigation led to lawsuits alleging “deceptive practices, false advertising, unjust profits, breach of contract” with damages in the millions. Now, a U.S. District Court judge has sided with Whole Foods and tossed out the lawsuit. (It was originally thrown out in 2016, but then an appeals court vacated that ruling.)
The 2015 DCA investigation involved testing “packages of 80 different types of pre-packaged products and found all of the products had packages with mislabeled weights,” according to the agency. For instance, eight packages of chicken tenders, which were supposed to be $9.99 per pound, were labeled with $4.13 overcharge to the customer per package. Further, most of the packages “tested did not meet the federal standard for the maximum amount that an individual package can deviate from the actual weight, which is set by the U.S. Department of Commerce,” according to the DCA.
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