Old Navy Sends Misleading Sales Emails to Washington Consumers, Class Action Says

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit claims Old Navy has sent Washington consumers misleading emails that advertise sales subject to “imaginary” time limits and false extensions or endings.

The 22-page Old Navy sales email lawsuit alleges the retailer’s practice of sending “serial emails” with subject lines that misrepresent the duration of promotions aims to impart a false sense of urgency and prompt consumers to act quickly before missing a deal.

Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.

For example, the suit says, some Old Navy subject lines claim that a certain discount is limited to “today only,” or available for “3 DAYS ONLY,” when, in truth, the promotions last longer than advertised. Other subject lines, which advertise that a sale has been extended, are similarly misleading since Old Navy had always planned to continue the offer, the case claims.

The defendants—Old Navy, LLC; Old Navy (Apparel), LLC; Old Navy Holdings, LLC and GPS Services, Inc., all owned by co-defendant The Gap, Inc.—purportedly transmit these deceptive emails as “an excuse” to send more emails later to announce an offer’s extension or ending, the complaint contends. As the filing tells it, this means that the email inboxes of Washington consumers rapidly “inflate[] with spam.”

Even though Old Navy’s emails often tout the limited nature of certain promotions and prices and encourage consumers to “Hurry!,” “Go, go, go!” and “OPEN QUICKLY,” the offers remain available after the stated period has ended, and even after the company advertises that a sale is ending, the lawsuit shares.

For example, the offer in one subject line from April 2022, which read “No joke! $12.50 JEANS (today only),” was seen again in the subject line of an email the next day, which stated “No joke! $12.50 JEANS (you earned it),” the suit describes.

Similarly, Old Navy sent an email in June of that year with a subject line reading “Today Only: $12 cami tops + $12 shorts,” the case says. However, as the complaint tells it, another email sent days later also promoted “$12 cami tops (this week only!!).”

In another instance, though an email subject line promoted a sale’s “FINAL HOURS: $5 PJ pants + 50% off” on November 26, 2021, Old Navy actively continued to advertise the half-price sale through November 30, the filing reports.

Although Washington’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act prohibits the transmission of commercial emails that contain false or misleading information in the subject line, Old Navy sends a single consumer “up to five marketing emails per day,” the lawsuit says. Per the case, Old Navy often sends an email when a limited time offer starts, while it is ongoing, when it is nearing an end, when it is in its “final hours” and when it has been extended.

The plaintiffs, Washington residents, both claim to have received up to three marketing emails a day from Old Navy. According to the suit, one plaintiff has apparently received thousands of emails from the company since the transmissions began in September 2017, and the woman reports that she “currently has at least 1,243 emails from Old Navy in her inbox.”

The other plaintiff has also received hundreds of marketing emails from the company since December 2021, the complaint adds. The woman says that her inbox currently contains at least 614 emails from Old Navy, but “it is likely that she has received more” since she has deleted some messages to “conserve the finite space available in her email inbox,” the filing says.

The lawsuit looks to represent:

“All Washington residents who, within four years before the date of the filing of this complaint until the date any order certifying a class is entered, received an email from or at the behest of Old Navy, LLC that contained a subject line stating or implying that (1) a sale, discount, price, or other offer would only be available for a limited time, and the sale, discount, price, or other offer was in fact offered for a longer period of time; (2) a sale, discount, price, or other offer was new or only offered that day, and the sale, discount, price, or other offer was in fact already being offered; (3) a sale, discount, price, or other offer would ending soon, and the sale, discount, price, or other offer continued to be offered for at least another day; or (4) a sale, discount, price, or other offer was being extended, when the sale, discount, price, or other offer was previously planned to continue through the extension advertised.”

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.