{"id":37337,"date":"2023-10-18T13:14:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=37337"},"modified":"2023-10-18T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:15:00","slug":"chick-fil-a-to-shell-out-4-4-million-in-cash-and-gift-cards-after-customers-accused-it-of-inflating-the-delivery-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/10\/18\/chick-fil-a-to-shell-out-4-4-million-in-cash-and-gift-cards-after-customers-accused-it-of-inflating-the-delivery-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Chick-fil-A to shell out $4.4 million in cash and gift cards after customers accused it of inflating the delivery price"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"251\" height=\"201\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 251px) 100vw, 251px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/download-5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37338\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.2487562189054726;width:388px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chick-fil-A&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;has agreed to shell out $4.4 million to customers who accused the chain of promising low-delivery fees, while &#8220;secretly&#8221; inflating menu prices as much as 30% during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;legal-news site&nbsp;TopClassActions&nbsp;first reported the settlement, which comes less than a month after a group of six plaintiffs filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status in a Georgia federal court. According to the news outlet,&nbsp;the fried chicken chain did not admit guilt in the settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs said they filed the proposed class action on behalf of themselves and people nationwide who &#8220;ordered food delivery through the Chick-fil-A mobile app or website, and were assessed higher delivery charges than represented.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eligible class members are expected to receive their settlement via a $29.25 cash payment or $29.25 gift card, TopClassActions said, adding that Chick-fil-A agreed to disclose on its app and website that menu prices &#8220;may be higher for delivery orders.&#8221; According to the news site, the parties also agreed to a &#8220;direct email notice system&#8221; to provide information to those potentially affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chick-fil-A and law firms representing the plaintiffs did not return requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the suit, which Insider obtained, the plaintiffs alleged that the chain falsely advertised &#8220;free delivery&#8221; or &#8220;low-price delivery&#8221; through its mobile app during the pandemic. According to the suit, Chick-fil-A was then &#8220;secretly inflating menu prices on delivery orders only.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suit alleged that the chain was inflating base menu prices by as much as 30% on delivery orders compared to in-store prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;On delivery orders only, Chick-fil-A secretly marks up food prices for delivery orders by a hefty 25-30%,&#8221; the suit states. &#8220;In other words, the identical order of a 30-count chicken nuggets costs approximately $5-6 more when ordered for delivery than when ordered via the same mobile app for pickup, or when ordered in-store.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suit, filed October 3, concluded: &#8220;By falsely marketing a free or low-cost delivery charge, Chick-fil-A deceives consumers into making online food purchases they otherwise would not make.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Inflating prices on delivery food has been around since before the pandemic. But lately, customers are noticing extreme price inflation \u2013 and they don&#8217;t like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a recent report,&nbsp;Insider found prices for Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and McDonald&#8217;s were 20% to 38% higher&nbsp;on delivery orders made through apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash. Restaurant chains set menu prices, not delivery apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the case of Chick-fil-A, Insider discovered that the chain was marking up the price of a traditional fried chicken sandwich on DoorDash by nearly 30%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Marked-up menu prices are one of the top customer complaints DoorDash receives,&#8221; DoorDash told Insider. &#8220;This is one reason \u2013 among many \u2013 why DoorDash encourages restaurant partners to maintain delivery menu prices that more closely reflect in-store menu prices.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chick-fil-A&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;has agreed to shell out $4.4 million to customers who accused the chain of promising low-delivery fees, while &#8220;secretly&#8221; inflating menu prices as much as 30% during the pandemic. The&nbsp;legal-news&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[6354],"class_list":["post-37337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-chick-fil-a-to-shell-out-4-4-million-in-cash-and-gift-cards-after-customers-accused-it-of-inflating-the-delivery-price"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}