Lawsuit Claims Staples Intentionally Shorted Reward Program Members UPDATE

UPDATE - December 15, 2016 - Staples has agreed to pay a $2 million settlement that will close the book on a proposed class action lawsuit filed over its allegedly deceptive rewards program miscalculation scheme before it even began. According to the terms of the settlement, Staples will pay $10 to each consumer who files a claim.

A new class action lawsuit out of California claims Staples shorted rewards program members on credit they should have received by unlawfully applying coupons proportionally to all purchases bought in a transaction rather than to only qualifying purchase amounts.

“By employing this deceptive method of calculating Reward Points, Staples shorted its members’ account credit which could have been used towards the purchase of most merchandise in Staples’ stores, online at staples.com, or by phone,” the lawsuit alleges.

With Staples’ rewards program, members are purportedly credited for a certain percentage of the total amount of “qualifying” purchases. The office supply heavyweight made it so that rewards program members would receive credit significantly lower than what was represented of “qualifying purchase amounts” by allegedly applying coupons used on exempted items, “i.e. items that do not constitute as a qualifying purchase’” on a pro rata (proportional) basis across all purchases. Doing so to all purchases and not only qualifying purchases allegedly caused rewards members to accrue far fewer points than initially represented, the complaint claims.

Staples’ alleged scheme was uncovered when, in 2013, the plaintiff bought three items for a total of $12.47. The plaintiff, the complaint details, redeemed a $1.50 coupon during the transaction that was applied unlawfully to all items purchased, including a non-qualifying item (a bottle of water). For the bottle of water, the plaintiff received zero rewards points.

For the entire transaction, the plaintiff claims he should have received $7.98 in rewards points, but was only credited with $7.02, the reason for which being Staples “deceptively applied the $1.50 coupon on a pro rata basis across all three purchases—despite its applicability to only the non-qualifying purchase.”

“It is simply unfair and deceptive to apply coupons redeemable only for non-qualifying purchases under the [rewards program] on a pro rata basis across all purchases made in the same transaction—including merchandise qualifying under the [rewards program,” the lawsuit says, adding that the plaintiff’s sales receipt for the aforementioned transaction concealed this practice because it fraudulently noted that the coupon was applied to only one item.

Clouding matters is the fact that Staples, the lawsuit says, has wavered on what it considers a “qualifying purchase,” meaning it’s gone back and forth on what items exactly are eligible for rewards credit. Staples has also allegedly been wishy washy on the percentage of money rewards members spent that could be doled out in the form of credit.

The proposed class for the suit covers anyone who is a Staples rewards program member who bought a rewards-eligible product and a non-rewards eligible product in the same transaction, used an item-specific coupon on a non-rewards eligible product and incurred financial harm by the defendant’s proportional application of said coupons between March 24, 2009 and the present.