Cavas claims that Chewy’s “deceptive trade practices” result in the overcharging of “its Autoship customers [with] more sales tax than is due on goods which are discounted” through the service.
A proposed class-action lawsuit claims that Chewy, an online pet supply company, engages in deceptive business practices by routinely overcharging its “Autoship” customers.
Filed earlier this week in a Rhode Island-based federal court, the lawsuit claims that Chewy charges a sales tax on Autoship transactions that corresponds with the full purchase price, rather than the discounted cost advertised to subscribers.
Autoship, notes The Independent, is typically marketed as a way for pet owners to receive recurring shipments of supplies, such as dog food and cat litter.
Attorneys for lead plaintiff Alix Cavas allege that Chewy’s terms of service explain Autoship-related charges. The terms state, among other things, that customers are to pay “the price of the item, less the Autoship & Save discount or any other discount, if applicable, plus any applicable shipping charges and sales tax.”
Cavas’s complaint argues that the wording of these terms indicates that sales tax is necessarily calculated after discounts have been applied—not before.
“Relevant to this action, where a retailer offers a discount (i.e., a percentage or dollar reduction in price) on a good or service, sales tax is calculated by reference to the discounted price of that good or service, not on the full price,” the lawsuit alleges.
Cavas claims that Chewy’s “deceptive trade practices” result in the overcharging of “its Autoship customers [with] more sales tax than is due on goods which are discounted” through the service.
“Chewy offered its Autoship customers a discount on their Autoship orders,” the lawsuit says. “This discount is a cash discount […] in the form of 35 percent off a customer’s first order and then 5 percent off Autoship orders thereafter.”
If Cavas and other class members had known that Autoship would tax customers at a higher, non-discounted rate, the lawsuit states, they likely would not have enrolled in the program.
“If [Cavas] and/or the Class members had knowledge of defendant’s unfair methods of competition and deceptive acts or practices described herein, they would not have enrolled on to Chewy’s Autoship program, or they would have been made aware that the Autoship program did not offer a ‘discount,'” the lawusit says.
The Independent notes that Cavas is being represented by the New York-based law firm of Gainey McKenna & Egleston as well as local Rhode Island attorney James Ruggieri.
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Do you use Chewy? New class action lawsuit against company filed in RI. What to know.
Online pet supply store Chewy faces class-action lawsuit and is accused of overcharging customers
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