Kroger

Kroger

Basic information
Founded	1883
Legal Structure	Public subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Also known as
Official website	https://thekrogerco.com/

The Kroger Company is an American retail store.

• False Advertising
• Monopoly
• Surveillance
• Data Collection
• Security Vulnerabilities
• Health-related issues
• Evidence Tampering

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Kroger category.

On 30 March, Kroger emailing firm Epsilon experienced a security breach that leaked customers names and email addresses.^[1] On 01 April, Kroger sent letters to affected customers that described the incident being sourced from a "outside company" and warning customers of phishing attacks and spam.^[2] Several organizations asked Epsilon the amount of customers affected, however they had refused to response.^[3][4][5]

Main article: Accellion data breach

Mid December in 2020, Kroger was involved in a data breach that resulted in around 50 customers leaking personal after hacker infiltrated Accellion systems. Kroger became aware of the incident in 27 January, and after conducting an investigation, released a statement around 19 February.^[6][7]

Main article: Kroger merger deal with Albertson

On 10 December 2024, the Federal Trade Commission block a $24.6 Billion merger agreement between Kroger and Albertsons over risk of higher food prices and fewer product choices. A day later, both companies filed lawsuits against each other.^[8][9]

Main article: Kroger Grocery store electronic shelf labels & facial recognition

Kroger introduced electronic shelf labels and facial recognition cameras across various stores citing it was for improving customer experience and lower prices. However, customers have raised concerns about price manipulation, privacy violations, and potential discrimination.

Consumer Report, the Guardian, and the Food & Environment Reporting Network released a report on 14 May after conducting an 3 month long investigation into several Kroger stores in the U.S. that revealed several products expired tags were out of date by at least 10 days and were overpriced by around $1.70. Kroger initially responded by saying the investigation was inaccurate. A few weeks later on 29 May, the company announced hiring over 15,000 employees to "enhance the customer experience". Additionally, after publication, employees claimed they were ordered by managers to correct price tags in a matter of days, however the company claims it was false and that it "hasn't issued any orders".^[10][11][12]

"The characterization of widespread pricing concerns is blatantly false. the complaint noted by Consumer Reports included a few dozen examples across several years out of billions of customers transactions annually. While any error is unacceptable, the characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false"^[13]

An investigation from Consumer Report detailed Kroger extensive usage and gathering of customers signed up into Kroger's loyalty card program, containing customers income level purchase history, educational level, household size, ethnicity, pet ownership, and online behavioral data, adding it then is sold to data brokers, tobacco companies, and healthcare technology companies.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Michael Hawkins filed a lawsuit on 15 October 2015^{[citation needed]} against Kroger over their product Kroger Bread Crumbs falsely advertising 0 grams trans fat per serving, instead containing artificial trans fats that can cause heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and death. Additionally, it also alleges the company didn't upheld food regulations since the product contained artificial trans fact. Kroger claimed plaintiff claims were preempted and evidence was question for legal ethnicity, lack of factual grounding, and "unfair conduct'. On 17 March 2016, the case was dismissed with prejudice, citing the claims lack evidence to be "preempted by federal law".^[18][19][20]

On 16 November 2018, the court reversed the dismissal, citing the plaintiff had enough evidence due to "adequately alleged that she relied on the label’s misrepresentations and would not have purchased the product without those misrepresentations", along with the plaintiff label statement decided to not be preempted by federal regulations.^[21][22] Kroger filed a motion to dismiss the case on 08 November 2019, citing the plaintiff lack evidence, however it was denied on 04 April 2019.^[23]

After denial, Kroger began delaying the court process across several court hearing and refusing to apply plaintiffs with additional information, only occasionally giving information however it was unsupported formats or irrelevant information, citing it was acting on a legal basis. Additionally, the comapny made a request to deny plaintiff file to motion, citing the evidence and discovery was "preempted". The plaintiff responded with the following;^[24]

"[t]he reality: our meet and confer efforts consisted of two conference calls between counsel, a third with the Court’s clerk, a formal 5-page letter, a large number of e-mails, and multiple offers of compromise. All this resulted in a total of zero substantive interrogatory responses and a total of 17 pages produced in partial response to one RFP."

The court eventually addressed this in a 16 September 2019 court case, ruling Plaintiff’s right to file a motion to compel and giving the company more time to create an response.^[25][26][24]

"Defendant asserted lengthy objections to each request, did not provide a substantive response to any of the interrogatories or RFPs, and did not produce any responsive documents or indicate a willingness to produce any documents. This is unacceptable and not in compliance with the spirit or requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. To make matters worse, Defendant supplemented its responses on July 11, 2019 but the supplemental responses provided minimal substance and Defendant did not produce any documents."

Due to Kroger repeated failure in producing documents, the court gave the company a deadline till 07 October, however the company failed to meet past the deadline. In a 23 April 2020 case hearing, the court highlighted the company constant refusal to provide information, resulting in the court ordering Krogers councels Heather Canner and Jacob Harper 8 hours of Continuing Legal Education, with half of which delving into ethics and discovery practices.^[27][28]

"Here, it is apparent to the Court from defense counsel’s persistent evasion of providing full discovery responses to Plaintiff, even in the face of an order compelling Defendant to do so and issuing monetary sanctions, that simply issuing monetary sanctions under Rule 37(b)(2)(C) a second time is not “up to the task” of adequately addressing the discovery abuses before the Court. the Court is left with the impression that either Kroger’s counsel earnestly—and mistakenly—believes their approach to discovery is consistent with the rules, or else they are operating under “a sporting chance theory encouraging parties to withhold vital information from the other side with the hope that the withholding may not be discovered and, if so, that it would only result in a fine"

On January 24, 2021, the case reached a settlement of $780,000, requiring the company compensate affected customer up to $100. Kroger claims it reached a settlement to avoids the burden of continuing legal proceedings.^[29][30][31]

Plaintiff Judy Kirkbride filed a class action complaint against Kroger on 05 January 2021 over allegedly conducting an pricing scheme on customers with third-party insurance providers on prescription medication products.^[32] Plaintiff claims the company mislead customers by excluding Rx Savings Club discount from "usual and customary prices", resulting in customers overpaying for medication products.^[33][34] Kroger denied the claims, arguing it has "no duty to disclose its usual and customary prices". ^[35][36] The case would reach a $17 million settlement in late March 2026, compensating customers purchases between 09 December 2018 .^[37][38]

• Walmart
• Fry's
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