A new Dunkin Donuts lawsuit filed by angry customers from New Jersey and New York says that the donut company overcharged them to almost $14 million over the course of three years. The lawsuit alleges that the company ripped off the customers by taxing non-taxable food items.
Customers of the said branches said that the company doesn't know how sales tax works. As per Dunkin Donuts' lawsuit, a store operating in Ft. Lee, New Jersey claimed that they charged the state 7% sales tax on unsweetened bottled water and bags of ground coffee which is a violation of the law, New York Post reveals. A second lawsuit says that a branch close to Manhattan's Penn Station charged customers on sales tax for pre-packaged coffee beans.
"Dunkin' should stop dunking their customers and provide customers with refunds or discounts so they are made whole," Carl Mayer, a lawyer who filed the lawsuits told The New York Post. The attorney also cited that a dozen different Dunkin' Donuts locations overcharged customers about 70% of the time.
Mayer also stressed that the company reaped Dunkin Donuts customers $10 million for overcharges and $4 million for overcharging on sales tax in New Jersey for three years, Consumerist reports. In an effort to respond to Dunkin Donuts' lawsuit, the company said in an email that the over 1,000 stores in New York and New Jersey are franchisees and they should comply with the federal law when it comes to tax implementations.
"We are in the process of reaching out to the franchisees identified in the complaint in order to determine whether these taxes were charged to customers," the company said, according to App.com.
Dunkin Donuts' lawsuit also claims that the company continues to overcharge customers through sales tax despite the mounting customer complaints and media publicity. In their latest statement, they said that they are now working to resolve the issues.
