Walgreens, the largest drug retailer in the United States, allegedly overcharged some customers for medical records. At least one lawsuit has been filed alleging that the firm violated state laws by charging overly high fees. The man suing Walgreens alleges he was charged a flat fee of $55 for his medical records.
The suit argues that state law puts a cap on the maximum amount a company is allowed to charge. In this case, the legal limit is $24.81 in handling charges, $0.93 per page for the first 25 pages, $0.62 per page for the next 25 pages and $0.31 for any more than 50 pages. By intentionally exceesing these limits, Walgreens perpetrated the “common scheme of fraud” and violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the lawsuit alleges. The company is also accused of trying to cover-up the scheme by describing fees in an ambiguous, unclear way. Walgreens is also accuse of common fraud law and unjust enrichment in the suit.
This is not the first time Walgreens has been named in a pricing lawsuit. According to a CCHeadliner report, Attorney General (AG) Chris Koster brought a lawsuit against the company for false, misleading and deceptive retail pricing at one of the store locations in Missouri. Allegedly, customers were routinely overcharged as part of the scheme. A settlement was reached in this case, where Walgreens agreed to have its stores monitored for three years by an independent auditor until June 2017. The auditor will be approved by the AG’s Office, paid by Walgreens and will audit as least 25 percent of the firm’s stores in Missouri every quarter. A minimum of 100 items in each store must be verified to determine if the shelf price is the same as what the customer is being charged at the register. A 98 percent accuracy rate is necessary to pass the audits. Stores that fail will be audited the following month.
