CHICAGO, U.S. – A suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court last week alleges that Peet’s Coffee & Tea has knowingly overcharged customers who’ve purchased its French Press coffee.
Dan Voelker, the Chicago litigation attorney who filed the suit Oct. 30, said the suit is “very similar to the suit filed against Subway, alleging the sandwich maker advertised foot-long sandwiches that were actually about a less than a foot.”
In the Peet’s suit, Voelker said the coffee maker’s “in-store signage has been advertising its French Press coffee as containing 12- and 32-ounce servings, when they are actually at least 25 percent less than advertised.”
“While the signage represents that the liquid volume served is 12 and 32 ounces, what the signage actually refers to is the size of the brewing equipment, the narrow glass cylindrical beaker where the coarse ground coffee is placed. Customers are actually served at least 25 percent less liquid volume than they believed they received.”
The suit alleges that Peets acted to defraud the plaintiff, Robert Garrett, and other consumers, through false and misleading information via point-of-purchase in-store signage and menus intended to trick unsuspecting consumers.
The proposed class action suit seeks unspecified damages on behalf of potentially thousands of customers who believed that they purchased more ounces of press pot coffee for their money than they actually received.
Peet’s has 243 stores nationally in nine states, including Illinois.
