Price Chopper Refutes Attorney General Statement

ALBANY, N.Y. — Price Chopper fired back at the New York State Office of the Attorney General (OAG) Tuesday for issuing a press release it called false, misleading and inflammatory.

The release is related to an agreement Price Chopper reached with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to pay a $100,000 fine and change the way it advertises and promotes coupons.

The OAG launched an investigation following complaints that Price Chopper failed to disclose restrictions on a corporate-wide coupon policy that limited the doubling of coupons “up to 99 cents,” leading shoppers to believe that $1 coupons would be doubled, according to the OAG.

“Price Chopper used deceptive business practices to mislead price-conscious consumers and extract hard-earned money from them by hindering their ability to shop competitively and save on groceries,” said Schneiderman, in the release. “Today’s agreement ensures that consumers will be protected from misleading advertising at these stores in the future."

Price Chopper responded with a tweet alleging that the OAG’s statement is not consistent with the Assurance of Discontinuance to which it agreed. “Contrary to the press release, the AOD makes no assertion that Price Chopper acted intentionally to harm consumers or that it practices caused any losses, let alone millions of lost savings to its customers,” it said.

Price Chopper shoppers redeemed more than 34 million coupons valued at 99 cents or greater, with approximately 8 million valued at $1 or more, according to the OAG.

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