From October 2019 to May 2024, the companies brought in as much as $19.7 million with the deceptive deals, Washington Attorney General Brown said

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Washington Attorney General Nick Brown filed a lawsuit against Albertsons, Safeway and Haggen on Monday, alleging the grocery chains are deceiving shoppers with “buy one get one free” deals.

According to the lawsuit, the corporate owner of Albertsons, Safeway and Haggen has overcharged customers in more than three million transactions within a five-year period by using deceptive “buy one get one free deals.”

Albertsons Companies – which is the parent company of Safeway and Haggen – is among the largest grocery chains in the United States, Brown said, explaining the company operates all Safeway, Albertsons and Haggen stores in Washington, totaling 225 stores in the state.

Brown argues that the stores entice shoppers with the BOGO promotions on everyday items such as bread, cereal, fresh produce and olive oil.

The lawsuit, filed in King County, says the stores artificially increase prices of products slated for the deals in the weeks and months before the BOGO promotion is introduced. Brown says this overcharges customers in the interim.

According to the lawsuit, the stores then lower prices around 30 days after the deal is over. “The net result is that consumers think they’re getting a second item free, but in practice, they’re just paying an inflated price for the first item,” the Washington Attorney General’s Office said.

The lawsuit details one incident at a Gig Harbor Albertsons, which hiked the price of a bottle of olive oil to $10.99 for the BOGO promotion, after the oil was previously $6.99 a week before, marking a 57% increase.

After the BOGO deal ended, however, Brown’s office says the price went back to $6.99.

“We’re not going to stand for people getting fleeced by these deceptive practices,” Brown said. “That’s why we’ve filed this case. We want to make sure we’re protecting people’s pocketbooks, and we all know that affordability is a major issue these days. We’ve got to push back when companies are misleading their customers.”

Brown’s office said from October 2019 to May 2024, the company brought in as much as $19.7 million with the deceptive deals.

This isn’t the first time the defendants have been accused of deceptive BOGO deals, officials note.

Brown’s office said Albertsons previously paid $107 million to settle a 2016 class action lawsuit for misleading BOGO deals in Oregon.

The companies also settled a proposed class action lawsuit filed in 2023 in federal court in another case involving BOGO deals in Washington.

The lawsuit accused the company of violating Washington’s Consumer Protection Act by engaging in unfair and deceptive practices by artificially inflating the pre-BOGO price, then lowering the price after the deal ends. The Attorney General’s Office also alleges the company misrepresented prices and therefore engaged in unfair competition.

Attorney General Brown is seeking a court ruling that the stores violated state law and end the company’s use of these practices. Brown is also seeking restitution for Washington consumers and is asking the defendants to pay civil penalties for every violation of state law, along with pre-judgement interest.

In a statement shared with KOIN 6 News, Albertsons Companies — which is the parent company of Safeway and Haggen — said, “We are aware that the Washington Attorney General has filed a lawsuit related to certain buy‑one‑get‑one promotions. We engaged in good‑faith discussions with the Attorney General’s Office and strongly disagree with its claims, which are based on flawed analysis and data errors that we identified and raised.”

“Albertsons Companies is committed to complying with the law and to offering customers clear value through our promotions,” Albertsons Companies continued. “As this is pending litigation, we will address the matter through the legal process and cannot comment further.”

Australia-based American Rare Earths, which operates a US subsidiary called Wyoming Rare, has advanced the pilot plant program for its Halleck Creek Project in Wyoming to produce a high-purity separated rare earth oxide.

The company has signed agreements for initial processing to be done in Wyoming through Western Research Institute in Laramie and DISA Technologies in Casper, followed by a final stage of hydrometallurgical processing and oxide separation at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) in Saskatoon, Canada.

The pilot plant program has been structured in three stages. The first two stages, milling and sizing followed by mineral separation and concentration, will take place in Wyoming. SRC will handle leaching, impurity removal and oxide refining in the third stage.

This will allow the front end of the pilot plant processing to stay in Wyoming, as it will process ore that has already been extracted from the American Rare Earths Halleck Creek site and stockpiled in Laramie. It will then leverage the downstream facility at SRC to accelerate production, the company said.

The pilot plant will use DISA’s patented high-pressure slurry ablation (HPSA) technology to handle coarser particle sizes and then use the GradePro reflux classifier and induced roll magnetic separators to perform primary mineral separation and secondary concentration.

The SRC facility has a similar process configuration to the type of downstream processing facility American Rare Earths intends to build in Wyoming. The company will use the data generated during the pilot campaign to further develop its plans for the commercial plant and mine.

“The pilot plant and production of pre-production rare earth oxide were previously expected to take several years. This defined pilot pathway now materially shortens the timeline and positions the Company to deliver outcomes within months,” said Mark Wall, CEO of American Rare Earths.

Source: American Rare Earths

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Crews began work Monday to remove the controversial Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza.

Tamara Barak Aparton, spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, said this week is focused on preparation, including removing grout between arm joints and labeling the fountain so it could potentially be reassembled later.

She said the fountain is being removed because of significant public safety risks caused by deterioration. It is structurally unstable and corroded.

“There’s also, like a lot of old structures, asbestos and lead, and it’s become kind of an attractive nuisance, so having it in storage will be significantly safer than having it out in a public square,” Barak Aparton said.

The fountain, created by sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, has been controversial, with a preservationist group suing to keep it in place.

The fountain, made up of 710 tons of material, was completed in 1971.

MORE: Removal of controversial Thomas Fallon statue in San Jose begins

In 1987, U2’s Bono spray-painted graffiti on the fountain during a free concert. He was cited for it.

The city said the entire removal process will take several months. The removal and storage of the fountain will cost $4 million.

San Francisco resident Alec Bash is happy to see the fountain go, saying it had become an eyesore.

“It had been a wonderful site-specific art installation,” Bash said. “Now it’s sort of out of place, out of context, out of time.”

Business owners Mike Stephens and Nigel Kennedy have mixed emotions about the removal.

“I remember skateboarding here in the ’90s, this whole plaza,” said Stephens, who owns Mike’s Barbershop in San Francisco. “To me, that fountain, it’s kind of a little ugly, but it has an iconic memory.”

MORE: After decades of public protest, SJ votes to remove controversial Thomas Fallon statue

“I’m a little sad to see it go,” said Kennedy, of Pro Style Barber Shop in San Francisco. “I think they are pushing some things through to make this all happen. But I’m also open to new opportunities. I’m a business owner here, so it might bring new business for me.”

ABC7 Eyewitness News reached out to the group advocating to keep the fountain, as well as the group’s attorney.

The attorney for keeping the historic fountain open sent a statement to ABC7 Eyewitness News’ Gloria Rodriguez writing:

“Friends of the Plaza filed an appeal last week of the preliminary injunction denial. Today Friends filed an appellate petition for a stay and writ of supersedeas to prevent physical disassembly, demolition, or removal of the historic Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza while the legal case proceeds.

Emergency exemption from CEQA, including for a project to substantially alter a qualified historic resource, requires more than deteriorated condition. Exemption is restricted to a “sudden, unexpected occurrence” requiring “immediate action” with no time for CEQA review. ( 21060.3.) Those are not present here.

No substantial evidence supports a conclusion that retaining the fountain in place to protect the court’s jurisdiction during the adjudication of the mandamus petition-projected at four months under the current schedule-could or would cause any harm to the public.

The City now admits that it can protect the fountain and the public on the site at a cost of $ 890,000 (Declaration of Eoanna Goodwin): much less than its current plan to spend $4.4 million for fountain disassembly and relocation. There is no emergency.

A stay and supersedeas will give a unique, storied resource of undisputed local, state, and national historic significance the benefit of the public CEQA process required by law-its only chance for survival. The historic Vaillancourt Fountain should not be disassembled or relocated from Embarcadero Plaza while Friends prove that there is no emergency justifying exemption from CEQA. Imminent substantial damage or loss of a historic resource presents exceptionally clear basis for issuance of a stay.

An emergency stay-this week-and supersedeas are urgently requested to protect the status quo while the case proceeds.”

There will be a community meeting Tuesday at 5:30p to discuss the future of Embarcadero Plaza and Sue Bierman Park. It is from 5:30p to 7p at Three Embarcadero Center.