Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is investigating whether Giant Food uses customers’ purchase histories, spending patterns, and other personal information to determine individualized discounts, promotional offers, or spending thresholds through its loyalty and rewards programs.
Giant Food advertises that its rewards program provides customers with weekly personalized offers, including offers involving products that individual customers frequently purchase. This means Giant has the ability to connect a particular shopper’s purchase history with individualized economic offers presented to that shopper.
Migliaccio & Rathod is investigating whether this personalization extends beyond selecting which products a customer might be interested in and instead affects how much a particular customer must pay or spend to receive a discount.
Of particular interest are individualized promotions requiring customers to “spend $X, save $Y” or satisfy similar spending thresholds. The investigation is examining whether these thresholds or discounts may vary between customers based on their historical spending, purchasing frequency, or other behavioral information.
If a customer’s historical spending is used to determine the amount that particular customer must spend to obtain a reward—or to determine how large a discount that shopper receives—consumers may not realize that apparently ordinary promotional terms have been individually calculated using their own purchasing behavior.
Consumers May Have Experienced:
- Receiving weekly offers personalized to their Giant Food shopping history;
- Receiving different discounts than another Giant customer for the same product;
- Receiving individualized “spend $X, save $Y” promotions;
- Seeing spending thresholds change based on their shopping habits;
- Receiving smaller discounts on products they purchase frequently; or
- Paying a higher net price than another customer shopping at the same store.
Potential Claims May Include:
- Failure to adequately disclose the use of personal information in determining promotional terms;
- Misleading presentation of individualized discounts or spending thresholds;
- Unfair or deceptive trade practices;
- False or misleading promotional pricing;
- Unjust enrichment; and
- Violations of applicable state consumer-protection laws.
Signs You May Be Affected:
- You participate or participated in Giant Food’s loyalty or rewards program;
- You regularly identified yourself through your loyalty account when making purchases;
- You received personalized weekly offers or coupons;
- You received individualized spending-threshold promotions;
- Another Giant customer received a better offer or lower net price for the same product; or
- Your discounts or spending thresholds appeared to change based on your purchasing history.
If you have encountered these issues, we would like to hear from you. Please complete the contact form on this page, send us an email at [email protected], or give us a call.