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KFC defendant in class action suit over coupon promo
June 17, 2009
LOS ANGELES — A class action suit has been filed against KFC, claiming the company reneged on an offer of a free grilled chicken meal. The offer, promoted on the Oprah Winfrey Show, was so popular that people lined up across the country, demanding "millions" of the meals. But the suit calls the KFC promo a "classic example of a bait and switch."
KFC ran the promo on the May 5 Oprah show, and told customers they could download a coupon from Oprah's Web site within the next 24 hours, according to the Superior Court complaint. The coupon would entitle people to a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal — two pieces of grilled chicken, two side orders and a biscuit.
The demand was so great KFC extended the download for a day. But on May 7, KFC started backing out of the deal, the suits claims. First it said it would not honor the coupons "today," but offered a rain check.
The company said people had to exchange the downloaded coupons for a rain check, "which will be redeemable at a later date for a two-week period." Requests for rain checks were to have been accompanied by a downloaded coupon and presented or mailed to a KFC outlet by May 19.
The suit claims these terms and conditions are more onerous than the original offer and will deprive many people of their free meals. The suit claims KFC knew that people would be lured to a restaurant by the offer and when their coupons were refused, would buy something. It calls that a "classic example of a bait and switch."
The suit demands punitive damages for fraud, misrepresentation and unfair trade. It is represented by Adam Gutride with Gutride Safier of San Francisco.
Read also, KFC pleased with grilled chicken sales.
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