Even the judge couldn’t resist a little potty humor.
Remember the Charmin contest late last year, where thousands of participants all received emails saying they had won the grand prize of a year’s worth of free toilet paper – only to be told in a follow-up email that they hadn’t actually won at all? Charmin tried to make it right by offering coupons as consolation prizes.
But an Illinois woman decided that wasn’t good enough – so she sued.
Now, a federal judge has ruled that she’s free to pursue her claim for the prize she says she’s owed. But she cannot pursue a class-action suit on behalf of other impacted contest participants. They’ll have to pursue claims of their own if they’re so inclined, with no guarantee of success.
“No matter the outcome of this case, plaintiff’s prize is bound to be flushed down the drain,” the judge noted dryly in his ruling on Thursday.
Jacquiline Pettitt sued Charmin manufacturer Procter & Gamble just four days after she was mistakenly told she was a winner. Back in December, she entered the monthly online contest – which is still going on – and later received an email announcing that she was “this month’s Charmin Sweepstakes WINNER!”
The only problem was, thousands of other contest entrants received the very same email. P&G followed up several hours later telling the non-winners that the “message was sent in error,” and offered a $2 Charmin coupon as an apology. When that sparked a very public online outcry, P&G upped the apology to two $25 coupons.
Pettitt decided she’d rather have her year’s worth of free toilet paper. So she sued P&G “for its failure to honor a promotional contest and use of unfair and deceptive means to avoid doing so.”
In ruling against Pettitt’s class-action claims, the judge in the case noted that the contest rules explained to participants that “any and all disputes… shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action.” Pettitt argued those terms were buried in pages of legalese. But while the terms were “not a beacon of clarity,” the judge acknowledged, agreeing to wordy contracts are simply “a fact of modern life.”
Pettitt learned from P&G that 2,994 Illinois residents received an email telling them they were that month’s winner. Extrapolated over 50 states, that means tens or hundreds of thousands of contest participants across the country may have been told they won the grand prize.
But Pettitt cannot represent any of them. Instead, the judge sent the case back down to a state court for her to pursue her own individual claim. Under state law, if she prevails, she’s entitled to the greater of $500 or twice the amount of the grand prize, which was valued at up to $407, plus legal fees and costs.
That’s a far cry from the $7.3 million in damages she had sought on behalf of herself and thousands of others. So her high hopes may have been wiped away, and her efforts sent down the drain. But she can always enter the latest monthly contest – even if her chances of winning for real may be little more than a crapshoot.
Image source: Ivan Radic 
