Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothing company that is the very height of fashion at middle schools across the nation, is facing a class action lawsuit from customers who claim the store failed to honor holiday gift cards with “no expiration date.”
The suit stems from a December 2009 promotion, which offered $25 gift cards for every $100 a customer spent in a single purchase. Abercrombie claims the cards were encased in sleeves with the expiration date Jan. 30, 2010. The retailer stopped accepting them on that date, denying uncounted furious tweens the chance to walk around with the company logo emblazoned on their chests.
Courts have been wary of certifying class actions ever since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dukes v. Walmart, which decertified a large class of employees, but a district court in Chicago was not deterred in this case.
Abercrombie claimed that the class could not be certified because some of the members had cards from stores, some from the company website and some of the cards had sleeves while others didn’t. Even so, the district court decided it was fair to certify a class containing both customers who held onto their cards, and those who threw them away when they were found to be expired, as long as they submit an affidavit to that effect.
