Crossed-Out 'Was' Prices Face Lawsuits. Here's How to Check a Deal

Three days before Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days sale on October 6–7, 2026, the crossed-out "was" price is under legal challenge. Since April, shoppers have filed proposed class actions in California federal courts accusing Best Buy, Steve Madden and Nike of showing discounts from reference prices they allegedly rarely or never charged. In the same month, Washington's Supreme Court ruled that buyers in that state can't bring a private claim under its Consumer Protection Act just because a bargain turned out to be misleading. None of these allegations has been proven.

For you, this means a strikethrough price or a "lowest price" badge is the seller's claim, and you should check it against the item's price history before you treat it as a saving. How much protection you get after a purchase depends heavily on the state you live in.

Key takeaways

Under the FTC's pricing guides, a "was" price must be a genuine price the seller offered openly and in good faith for a reasonably substantial period in the recent past. A price set high so it can be "cut" later is fictitious.
California bars advertising a former price unless it was the prevailing market price in the three months before the ad, or the ad clearly states when that price applied. All three pending lawsuits cite this rule.
Every lawsuit described here is an allegation, not a finding. The Best Buy, Nike and Steve Madden cases are pending, and a Prime Day suit against Amazon was voluntarily dismissed on April 20, 2026.
On Amazon, "Lowest Price in 30 Days" compares only against Amazon's own featured-offer prices from the past 30 days. A lower price 31 days ago, or at another store, doesn't count.
Price history is a better guide than the crossed-out price. In a 2025 Consumers' Checkbook price-tracking study, 21 of 25 national chains advertised sale prices more than half the time.

What it means for you

If you're shopping October or holiday sales

Before you rely on a percentage-off figure, check how the reference price was set and what the item actually sold for over the last few months. The worked example below shows how much the gap can be.

If you live in California

California has a specific former-price rule, and under California law, as the federal appeals court read it in Hinojos v. Kohl's, shoppers who wouldn't have bought without a false reference price can sue on their own behalf. All three pending federal cases in this article were filed there. Some settlements cover only California buyers.

If you live in Washington

Since April 2, 2026, you generally can't bring a private Consumer Protection Act claim over a misleading discount alone if you got and kept the everyday product you paid the advertised price for. The ruling leaves room for a claim if the item was objectively different from, or worth less than, what was advertised. The state attorney general doesn't have to prove injury and can still bring cases, so a complaint to that office matters more.

If you already bought at a "discount" that looks inflated

Your fastest options are the seller's own price-adjustment window and its return window. Complaints to the FTC and your state attorney general don't get you a refund, but they put the pattern on record. The closing checklist explains each step.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Who is challenging 'was' prices

None of the cases below targets a "lowest price ever" badge by name. The challenges are aimed at the reference prices those claims depend on: "Reg," "Comp. Value," "List Price" and the strikethrough figures used to calculate "Save $X" and "40% off." The table lists each challenge with its status as of October 3, 2026. Lawsuit entries are allegations that no court has found true.

Who	What is alleged or found	Date	Status
Shopper v. Best Buy (C.D. Cal., No. 8:26-cv-00836)	Alleges "Reg" and "Comp. Value" prices never reflected the prevailing price in the 90 days before a sale	Filed Apr 6, 2026	Pending; amended complaints filed Aug 18 and Sep 14, 2026; no ruling on the allegations
Shopper v. Steve Madden (C.D. Cal., No. 2:26-cv-07782)	Alleges reference prices were rarely, if ever, charged	Filed Jul 16, 2026	Pending; no ruling on the allegations
Shopper v. Nike (S.D. Cal., No. 3:26-cv-04167)	Original complaint alleges black Air Max 2017 shoes were shown "on sale" against a $190 reference price from Sep 8, 2025 to Mar 14, 2026	Filed Jul 21, 2026	Open on the docket; amended complaint filed Aug 25, 2026; a Sep 24, 2026 entry is labeled only "Dismiss," with no further detail on the public docket
Shoppers v. Amazon (W.D. Wash., No. 2:25-cv-01826)	Alleged inflated list prices behind July 2025 Prime Day percentage discounts	Filed Sep 22, 2025	Voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs Apr 20, 2026; no finding either way
Mattress buyers v. Night US and Brooklyn Bedding (San Diego Superior Court)	Alleged inflated reference prices on Leesa, Brooklyn Bedding, Helix and Bear sites	2026	Preliminarily approved settlement worth about $8.16 million ($110 per mattress, cash or store credit); final approval hearing Oct 16, 2026; defendants deny wrongdoing
10 state attorneys general v. Menards	Alleged "11% off" ads implied savings at the time of purchase when buyers got a rebate as store credit for future purchases	Dec 17, 2025	Settled for $4.25 million; Menards agreed to end the practices
National Advertising Division (NAD)	Reviewed Lidl's grocery price comparisons and Guardian Bikes' strikethrough prices	Jan 12 and Sep 23, 2026	Both companies agreed to change their ads

The original Best Buy complaint is the most detailed of the three. It says listings captured on April 3, 2026, still showed the same "Comp. Value" on two Insignia TVs as 14 months earlier, even though the sale prices had dropped since then. The Best Buy complaint, the Nike complaint and the Steve Madden complaint are the original filings and plaintiffs' accounts; none has been tested in court. The Best Buy and Nike complaints have since been amended. Check the Nike docket for its current status, because its latest entry is not described on the public index. The case status comes from the federal dockets for Best Buy, Steve Madden, Nike and Amazon.

The mattress terms are on the official settlement website. The class covers buyers in California only, the claim deadline was September 25, 2026, and the court has not yet given final approval. The Menards settlement was announced by the Illinois attorney general.

NAD is the advertising industry's self-regulatory body, not a court. In the Lidl decision, a challenge brought by rival Ahold Delhaize USA, NAD said seven days is a reasonable shelf life for a competitor price check. In a routine monitoring inquiry into Guardian Bikes, it found the strikethrough prices didn't clearly disclose that they were comparable values rather than Guardian's own former prices. Guardian agreed to add conspicuous disclosures.

The FTC's recent pricing cases are about hidden fees, not "was" prices. On October 2, 2026, the agency and the Utah and Nevada attorneys general sued Lens.com, alleging that a "Taxes & fees" charge added at checkout often doubled the advertised price of contact lenses. Consumers' Checkbook, which tracked sale prices at 25 national chains for 24 weeks from February 2025, says that to its knowledge the FTC hasn't enforced its own rules on inflated sale prices for decades.

How reference prices are set

A reference price is any higher price a seller shows next to its current price to signal a saving. Retailers build it from different inputs, so two "was" prices on two sites can mean different things.

Amazon's labels

Amazon's strike-through pricing page defines its main labels as follows:

List Price is the manufacturer's or seller's suggested price. Except for books, Amazon shows it only if customers bought the item on Amazon, or other retailers offered it, at or above that price in the past 90 days (180 days for seasonal products).
Typical Price is the median price customers paid on Amazon over 90 days, excluding limited-time promotions.
Lowest Price in XX Days means the current price is at or below the lowest featured-offer price for that item on Amazon in that window.

The List Price test can be met by another retailer's offer even if few people paid that price anywhere. The 30-day badge measures only Amazon's own recent prices, so it can't tell you whether a price is the lowest ever or the lowest on the market.

Best Buy's "Comp. Value"

Best Buy's pricing help page says Comp. Value prices are based on what the product, or a comparable item, was or will be offered for by Best Buy, marketplace sellers, manufacturers, suppliers or other retailers. In other words, a Comp. Value doesn't necessarily mean Best Buy ever charged that amount.

Illustrative example: an $80 saving that is really $10

The advertised discount is calculated from whatever reference price the seller chooses:

discount % = (reference price − current price) ÷ reference price × 100

Here, reference price is the crossed-out figure and current price is what you pay. Suppose an air fryer shows $199.99 crossed out and $119.99 in bold, with a "Lowest Price in 30 Days" badge. Over the past 90 days it mostly sold for $129.99, and it dipped to $109.99 six weeks ago.

Measure	Calculation	Result
Advertised saving	$199.99 − $119.99	$80.00 (40% off)
Saving against the usual price	$129.99 − $119.99	$10.00 (7.7% off)
Against the 90-day low	$119.99 − $109.99	$10.00 more than the low

In this example the advertised saving is eight times the real one, and the 30-day badge is technically true because the $109.99 dip was 42 days earlier. The sale price is still a small discount. The headline number just tells you nothing about how small it is.

What the law actually requires

The federal standard is the FTC's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing (16 CFR part 233), which date from 1967. A former price is legitimate if it is the "actual, bona fide price" at which the item was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time. A former price isn't automatically fictitious just because nothing sold at it. In that case, though, the seller must have offered it openly and actively, in the recent regular course of business, honestly and in good faith. Wording such as "formerly sold at" also implies real sales were made at that price.

The guides are not a rule with fixed day counts. Under 16 CFR 1.5, they are the FTC's interpretation of the FTC Act, and failing to follow them can lead to action under that law. Some states set more specific tests:

Jurisdiction	What a "was" price must meet
Federal (FTC guides)	A bona fide price, openly offered in good faith for a reasonably substantial period in the recent past; no fixed number of days
California, Bus. & Prof. Code 17501	The prevailing market price within the three months immediately before the ad, unless the ad clearly and exactly states when that price applied
Massachusetts, 940 CMR 6.05	The seller must prove the price was bona fide. It automatically qualifies if 40% of sales over the prior six months were at that price, or it was offered for the 14 days just before the ad, or for at least 28 of the 90 days before the ad (or of another 90-day period in the past 12 months, if the ad discloses when)
Oregon, OAR 137-020-0010	A price at which the seller made good-faith sales or offers within the preceding 30 days, or at an earlier time the ad identifies

Why your state decides whether you can sue

A rule only helps you if someone enforces it. In Hinojos v. Kohl's (2013), the federal appeals court covering California held that a shopper who wouldn't have bought an item without a fictitious "original" price has lost money and can sue under California law. Washington's Supreme Court went the other way in Montes v. SPARC Group on April 2, 2026. The case involved Aéropostale leggings bought for $6 that were advertised as reduced from $12.50, a price the plaintiff alleged they had rarely sold for. Answering a question sent by the federal appeals court, it held that a buyer who gets and keeps an everyday product at the agreed price, with no objective economic loss, has no injury under the state's Consumer Protection Act. It added that a buyer could claim a loss if the product was objectively different from, or worth less than, what was advertised. The opinion notes that the attorney general doesn't have to prove injury, and it cites a 2017 federal appeals decision that reached a similar result under Massachusetts law.

Frequently asked questions

Is a manufacturer's suggested price a fair "was" price?

Only if real sales happen at it. The FTC guides say a list price isn't fictitious if substantial sales, meaning more than isolated or insignificant ones, are made at that price in the seller's trade area. If the list price is well above the highest price at which substantial sales occur, an advertised reduction from it is likely to mislead.

Does "compare at" mean the store once charged that price?

No. A "compare at" or "comparable value" price usually points to other sellers' prices, sometimes for a similar item rather than the identical one. The FTC guides say that kind of comparison is fair only if it's made clear the price belongs to comparable merchandise that representative stores in the area actually offer at that price.

Can a "sale" sign with no price on it still mislead?

Yes. The guides say that when an ad just says "Sale" without stating a former price or a percentage, the reduction must still be big enough that a shopper who knew the figure would see a genuine saving. Their own example is an item "reduced to $9.99" from $10, which the FTC calls misleading.

Is a "limited time" sale that never ends a problem?

It can be. Among the misleading practices listed in section 233.5 of the guides is a "limited" offer that is not, in fact, limited. Price history shows whether a deal advertised as ending tonight has been running for months.

What happens after I report a misleading discount to the FTC?

The FTC doesn't resolve individual reports. It says reports help law enforcement spot patterns and may lead to an investigation. The same FTC guidance says your state attorney general or local consumer protection office may be able to help with an individual problem.

How to check a deal before buying

Look up the price history. Keepa provides Amazon price-history charts and price-drop alerts. Google's price insights, available to US shoppers, rate a price as low, typical or high and show how it has changed over recent months using prices from sellers across the web. Chrome's Shopping insights shows price history if you're signed in and syncing. Compare the sale price with the usual price, not with the crossed-out one.
Screenshot the claim. Capture the reference price, the badge and the date. Stores may not accept screenshots for price matching (Target says it doesn't), but they're useful evidence for a complaint.
Know the price-adjustment window. Target matches its own lower price within 14 days of purchase and no longer matches competitors. Best Buy matches listed competitors' prices at the time of sale, and its own lower price during the return period, with exclusions that include the Thanksgiving holiday period, marketplace sellers, clearance and open-box items. Walmart doesn't adjust Walmart.com prices that drop after you buy.
Check your card's benefits guide. A few cards still include price protection, which refunds the difference if an item is advertised for less after you buy. Capital One, for example, says the benefit comes with some of its cards. Many cards don't include it, so check the terms for your own card.
Use the return window. If you find out a discount looks inflated while you can still return the item, returning it is usually faster than any complaint.
Report it. File at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and with your state attorney general, which you can find in NAAG's directory. Include your screenshots and the price history.