Lululemon Sued Over ‘Phantom Discount’ Pricing on Its Website

A California woman is suing athleisure company Lululemon over its allegedly deceptive practices of developing “fictitious regular prices” on its website to make customers believe they are paying a discounted price. The plaintiff, Annette Cody, filed her lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Lululemon of deceiving customers about its prices. Her complaint stems from a visit to Lululemon’s website in April when she purchased a pair of “Wunder Train high-rise” tights. Ms. Cody says the website listed the price as $59 with a “strikethrough” price that read $98, which led her to believe she was getting a discount of $39. However, she said that was a “phantom discount.”However, the plaintiff said that she learned Lululemon had not sold those tights at $98 since October 8, 2025, and accused the company of falsely making it seem as though they were regularly sold at the price that had the strikethrough.“This practice allows defendant to fabricate a fake ‘reference price,’ and present the actual price as ‘discounted,’ when it is not,” the lawsuit says. “These pricing and advertising practices reflecting high-pressure fake sales are patently deceptive. They are intended to mislead customers into believing they are getting a bargain by buying products from defendant on sale and at a substantial and deep discount.” Ms. Cody pointed to guidance from the Federal Trade Commission, which says that the “regular price” listed should be “one at which the product was openly and actively offered for sale, for a reasonably substantial period of time, in the recent, regular course of his business, honestly and in good faith – and not for the purpose of establishing a fictitious higher price on which a deceptive comparison might be based.”Ms. Cody is seeking unspecified restitution, damages, punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief.Lululemon did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. Lululemon has frequently found itself in hot water. In May, the company faced criticism after it featured a Japanese taiko drum at a May 30 promotional event on the Great Wall of China, instead of a Chinese dagu drum, which led to complaints of cultural insensitivity. It has also been plagued by controversy surrounding its founder, Chip Wilson, who said he chose a company name with multiple L’s because Japanese people cannot pronounce the letter and “it’s funny to watch them try to say it.”In 2024, Lululemon was hit by criticism over Mr. Wilson criticized the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. “They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody,” Mr. Wilson told Forbes. “And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody. You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”At the time of the comment, Mr. Wilson had not had a role with the business operations for more than eight years. However, the company put out a statement clarifying that Mr. Wilson “does not speak for Lululemon” and his “comments do not reflect our company views or beliefs.”Lululemon is also facing an investigation launched by Texas’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, into whether the company’s clothes contain PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” and whether it misled consumers about the safety of its clothing. Other retailers such as TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Macy’s, and Crocs have also faced “phantom discount” lawsuits.

Lululemon Sued Over ‘Phantom Discount’ Pricing on Its Website

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