Posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2017 at 4:39 pm
Walgreens ordered to pay $500K fine for misleading ads
New York’s Attorney General’s office has found that Walgreens has been misleading their customers in sales practices. An undercover investigation discovered that Walgreens have been practicing deceptive sales tactics on more than one front:
Sales Ad Deception: Prices were posted in Walgreens print advertisements that would not be honored in-store
In Store Deception: Products were marked as ‘” Smart Buy’ or ‘Great Buy,'” even though they were being sold at retail price; they also marked products as” ‘Last Chance’ or ‘Clearance'” when they continued to be on shelves for 8 – 10 months. The would also imply an immediate cash discount when in reality this discount would be applied to a future purchase.
It is important that we as consumers remain vigilant to unfair sales practices, and hopefully this fine will encourage Walgreens to keep their pricing fair. They will also need to curtail these misleading practices, and failure to pass external audits will result in more fines.
You can read the full press release from the Attorney General here.