Whole Foods In Settlement Over Pricing
December 29 2015 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 12/29/15)
By Keiko Morris
Whole Foods Market Inc. has agreed to pay $500,000 and enforce
certain policies to settle allegations that its city stores were
overcharging customers for prepackaged foods, the New York City
Department of Consumer Affairs said Monday.
The agreement stems from an investigation by the consumer
affairs department into the mislabeling of prepackaged products in
Whole Foods' New York City locations, according to the department.
The agency's investigation didn't find evidence of "systematic or
intentional misconduct" by the company, Whole Foods said in a
statement.
The settlement also requires the supermarket chain to adopt
actions, including quarterly audits and training around accurate
pricing and labeling. Whole Foods said the audits and some of the
policies already had been in place.
The agreement "will help to ensure New Yorkers are better
protected from overcharging," said Julie Menin, Department of
Consumer Affairs Commissioner, in a statement.
Last summer, the consumer agency revealed the results of an
investigation it said showed repeated instances of mislabeled
prepackaged products. In some cases, labels on packages had the
incorrect weights for the product, it said. In other cases, Whole
Foods charged an equal amount of money for products that were
priced per-package even though their weights weren't the same,
according to the agency probe.
In its statement, Whole Foods noted the company already has put
in place a pricing-accuracy policy refunding customers for any item
inadvertently mispriced, third-party auditing and a training
program for employees.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 29, 2015 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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