Florists’ Transworld Delivery Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over Allegedly Hidden Online ‘Junk Fee’

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Florists’ Transworld Delivery (FTD) faces a proposed class action lawsuit that claims the floral wire service unlawfully waits to tack on a $19.99 delivery fee until the very end of the online ordering process.

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The 49-page lawsuit against FTD alleges that the retailer’s last-minute disclosure of the “surprise fee,” which is added onto the price of every product irrespective of order size or recipient location, is nothing more than a deceptive “bait-and-switch” pricing scheme that has allowed the company to “systematically cheat[] consumers out of millions of dollars” each year.

The suit accuses FTD of using “drip pricing,” a manipulative tactic whereby companies add previously undisclosed charges to a product’s price as consumers navigate through the purchasing process. The technique has enabled the retailer to lure shoppers with artificially low prices before tricking them into paying more at checkout, the complaint contends.

The case claims that instead of properly disclosing the $19.99 per-arrangement delivery fee at the beginning of the purchase flow on FTD.com, the company springs the extra charge on the consumer right before they finalize the transaction, after they have already clicked through multiple screens and invested a significant amount of time building their order.

As the complaint tells it, nowhere during the purchase process does FTD mention that a $19.99 fee will be added to the price of each floral arrangement. Per the filing, only after navigating through five webpages and entering all the details of the order does the consumer arrive at the payment information page, where the true total cost of the product—including the surprise fee—is listed in the “order summary” section for the first time.

The lawsuit asserts that FTD’s pricing scheme is “designed to hassle the user into clicking ‘PLACE ORDER’ rather than confront the alternative of losing more valuable time and energy searching for another option from a different competitor or a differently priced listing from [FTD’s] offerings.”

What’s more, the suit alleges the “junk fee” is not truly a delivery fee or shipping cost at all.

“The Surprise Fee of $19.99 is the hidden cost of every listed item, a hidden portion of the charge the consumer must pay to purchase the product,” the case says. “The fee is for general service, not a pass-through delivery charge.”

Consumers have been duped into spending more on floral arrangements than they otherwise would have absent FTD’s false advertising, the complaint contends.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who purchased a floral arrangement and/or other gift delivery from FTD within the applicable statute of limitations period.

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