Class Action Claims Discounts at Under Armour Outlet Stores Are ‘Total Fiction’

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A proposed class action claims Under Armour, Inc. has deceived outlet store shoppers by marking purportedly discounted merchandise with false “original” prices “that no one ever pays.”

According to the suit, customers at Under Armour’s outlet stores are led to believe the retailer’s products are being sold at a “steep discount” when, in truth, the items were never offered for sale at the reference prices on their labels. The case claims placards in the defendant’s stores perpetually advertise items as being a “percentage off” an “original” price listed on the product’s label in order to induce customers into making a purchase.

In reality, the perceived discount is a “total fiction” meant to bait consumers who otherwise may not have purchased the defendant’s products, the suit alleges.

“Steep discounts entice consumers who would not normally be in the market to purchase merchandise, into making a purchase, because of the (perceived) extraordinary value of the discount,” the complaint says, adding that the apparently false reference prices artificially inflate the market value of the products.

The suit theorizes that most of the products sold at Under Armour’s outlet stores were made specifically for such and never offered for sale at the defendant’s retail locations. If the products were ever sold at the reference prices listed on their labels, it was sometime in the “distant past,” the case says, and not within the past 90 days as required under California law.

The lawsuit explains that whenever a retailer advertises a product at a discount from an “original” reference price, the product must have been offered for sale at that referenced price within the past 90 days, or the retailer must include the date on which the product was last offered at such a price.

According to the case, the plaintiff’s counsel’s investigators visited Under Armour stores in California “nearly every day” between early 2019 and early 2020 and discovered that items listed for sale in the retailer’s outlet stores were never sold at their “original” price.

“The Outlets do not offer any merchandise at the full, or original price—ever,” the complaint scathes. “Every product in the store is discounted from an original price, the minute it hits the floor.”

The lawsuit alleges that the defendant’s false reference prices have caused consumers such as the plaintiff to pay more for Under Armour products than they would have absent the retailer’s conduct.

The suit looks to represent anyone in California who purchased one or more items from a California Under Armour outlet store at a price discounted from an advertised reference price and who has not received a refund or credit for the purchase.