Whole Foods pays $500,000 for overcharging customers

Chain settles the bill as customers in New York City pay too high a price

The company agreed to settle the bill at $500,000 (Getty)

Whole Foods has truly earned its nickname of “whole paycheck” as the luxury foodstore chain has been ordered to pay a fine of $500,000 to bring to an end an investigation into claims that it overcharged customers for prepackaged foods.

The news comes after months of negotiations with the New York Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), who said it had found thousands of potential violations across food items like vegetable platters and chicken in New York City stores.

The DCA found that more than three-quarters of the 120 supermarkets had fallen foul of its guidelines.

Whole Foods refused to consider the DCA’s initial demands of $1.5 million, and agreed to settle at $500,000.

The food chain released a statement on Monday to say that the DCA “misrepresented” the agreement to work together and find the best solution for customers, and argued it had pre-existing pricing and weights for food, as well as a third party auditing. Customers could also get a full refund for any item “inadvertently mispriced”.

“Furthermore, the DCA’s allegations of violations on weighted/measured items were limited to New York City, and as our joint agreement states, there was no evidence of systematic or intentional misconduct by anyone in the Northeast region or the rest of the company,” said Whole Foods.

In June last year the same chain was ordered to pay $800,000 for overcharging customers across more than 70 stores in California.

The company’s share price has taken a serious hit as sales have slowed, dropping over 32 per cent year to date.