Find out which 3 major grocery chains are accused of overcharging their customers

Grocers Safeway, Vons and Albertsons have agreed to a $4 million civil settlement after being accused of false advertising and unfair competition.

This comes after customers at some locations noticed that advertised prices on certain foods were higher than initially advertised, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit says that not only were there problems with the scanner, whether intentional or not, but customers began to complain.

After a wave of complaints and subsequent investigations, it was discovered that a number of these stores were displaying inaccurate weights on some of the foods they sold.

Meats, breads, produce and other items weighed in stores contained less product in the package than was indicated on the package label, according to the complaint.

For example, if you were trying to buy ground beef and the label said 1.4 pounds of beef, it’s possible it was only 1 pound, the plaintiffs argued.

It is important to note that these grocery chains have not admitted their guilt. They nevertheless continued the settlement to pay customers who claimed to have been affected.

After enough people complained to the Sonoma County Attorney’s Office in California, they took the case and got the settlement for those overcharged.

“Trusting businesses to sell consumers products that are accurately weighed and priced, especially in today’s economy, is a priority for my office,” said Sonoma County, California, District Attorney Carla Rodriquez. “My Environmental and Consumer Law Division works with the Sonoma County Commissioner of Agriculture/Department of Weights and Measures to ensure businesses in our community are billing consumers correctly.”

Additionally, to rectify what they are accused of, grocery chains are required to implement a pricing accuracy program to avoid overcharging in the future.

The program – which includes a guarantee provision – offers compensation of up to $5 to customers if they are overcharged at checkout. This is an incentive to get consumers to report fake ads directly to the store as soon as they are discovered.

Albertsons, Safeway and Vons operate 589 stores in California.