CA Avocado Grower’s Lawsuit Takes Issue with Xerox’s Allegedly Unconscionable Business Tactics [UPDATE]

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Temecula, California’s Eco Farms Sales, Inc. has filed a proposed class action against Xerox Corporation that claims the company charges excessive, unwarranted fees for customers looking to end lease agreements, among other supposedly unacceptable business tactics. The plaintiff, a company that grows, packs and markets avocados, claims in its 22-page complaint that Xerox unlawfully induces individual and business customers into contracts for printing and copying equipment without disclosing the true cost of such services. Moreover, the case alleges Xerox “buries unconscionable and self-serving provisions” into the contracts’ fine print, which can lead to substantial penalties should the customer terminate the agreement before its natural end.

Once an individual or business enters into a contract with Xerox, the company then allegedly levies enormous fee increases, which the lawsuit says effectively handcuff customers to one of two possibly costly decisions.

“Xerox engages in such tactics because, once the customer signs the contract, they are put to a Hobson’s choice: (a) pay the increased fees or (b) terminate the contract and pay enormous early termination fees,” the complaint says.

Further still, the lawsuit takes issue with the terms and conditions allegedly contained within Xerox’s customer contracts, through which the plaintiff claims the company tries to “back-track” from agreed upon rates while it “asserts authority to increase the customer’s fees whenever and to whatever amount it desires.”