Wisconsin customers cheated by Roundy’s short-weighed food items are unlikely to see any of the $1 million settlement.
On Tuesday, November 19, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) announced a settlement with Roundy's Supermarkets, Inc. for just over $1 million. This comes after an investigation by the DATCP that found 1,202 alleged short-weight package violations and 90 alleged package labeling violations. The investigation also identified 587 products with misleading label errors. While Roundy’s does not admit to the violations, the company will pay $1,003,590.50 in civil forfeitures, surcharges, and fees.
Normally, the DOJ collects these funds, but they can also be given directly to the defendants or a third-party administrator. In these cases, the DOJ works to find customers to refund. However, identifying overcharged consumers can be a challenge, especially when purchases were made in cash or without loyalty programs tracking transactions. In other cases, it’s impractical to determine how much was overcharged.
After attempts to identify overcharged customers, sometimes there are leftover funds in the DOJ’s restitution appropriation. When this happens, the settlement agreement can allow the Attorney General to distribute funds for purposes that fit with the nature of the violation, such as “court costs, attorney fees, consumer protection and education efforts, or other lawful purposes at his or her discretion,” according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's Informational Paper. Wisconsin law also says that state forfeitures collected by the DOJ have to go to the common school fund.
Regarding the settlement, DATCP Secretary Randy Romanski commented, “Consumers have a right to receive the true value of the products they pay for. The DATCP Bureau of Weights and Measures conducts hundreds of thousands of inspections every year to protect Wisconsin consumers from misleading pricing and labeling, and I am proud that our team’s work in this matter will ensure fair prices and improve future compliance.”
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