ORLANDO, Fla. – Have you ever gone to Publix for a grocery trip, only to find out later on that you’d been overcharged?
Well, it turns out you’re not alone.
That’s reportedly what happened to one customer who took the Florida-native grocery giant to court last year.
According to the class-action lawsuit, the customer — identified as Wendy Koutouzis — was shopping at a Publix store in January 2025 when she noticed that pork tenderloin was on sale for $4.99 per pound.
As a result, Koutouzis purchased a package of the tenderloin, which was labeled as 2.83 pounds.
However, when she went to check out, it instead rang up as 3.96 pounds, the lawsuit shows.
As such, Koutouzis was charged $19.78, instead of the expected $14.12, court records claim.
That’s a roughly 40% overcharge.
“Most customers do not realize that the weight of the product has changed because Publix’ POS is programmed so that the total price of the product matches the total price on the customer’s receipt or the POS screen, so to avoid detection,” the lawsuit reads. “And the customer’s receipt does not list the weight of the product but only the alleged savings and the total price of the product.”
The lawsuit goes on to accuse Publix and its workers of failing to fix the POS system or alert customers about the problem, as doing so could hurt the company’s revenues.
“Publix regularly displays a lower price per ounce on the stickers on the shelves when the customer never receives the lower price per unit as advertised,” the lawsuit continues.
That’s not where it ends, though.
The lawsuit included other examples of this issue at Publix stores, including with turkey, chicken, ham, apples and baby formula.
Due to these incidents, the lawsuit accused the company of deceptive trade practices and unjust enrichment.
But last month, a judge dismissed the case, citing the “Publix Promise.”
THE PUBLIX PROMISE
That’s a chain policy guaranteeing that if during checkout, the scanned price of an item is higher than the advertised price, Publix will give the customer one of that item for free.
Meanwhile, Publix will charge the lower price for the remaining items if this happens, the policy states.
[BELOW: Publix is no longer Florida’s top grocer!?]
As such, a court order states that Koutouzis failed to establish that she had suffered enough to warrant the lawsuit.
“This is because she successfully obtained a refund for various purchases, negating any injury that she could have suffered due to (Publix’s) allegedly deceptive practices,” the order reads. “And as to the other purchases for which she did not receive a refund, (Koutouzis) fails to explain why she could not avail herself of the Publix Refund Policy.”
Court records show that Koutouzis has appealed the decision.
You can read through both the original complaint and the court order below.