Lawsuit against Staples Over Insurance Charges

Uncategorized — By lavatyme on January 6, 2006 at 9:47 am

An appeals court reinstated a lawsuit that claims office supply chain Staples Inc. cheated customers by charging them for insurance when shipping some products.

The 2nd District Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, ruled Wednesday that Staples was acting as an unlicensed insurance agent when it doubled the shipping insurance costs on some packages and took half of the premium.

Staples Charges
Staples offered the insurance through United Parcel Service. UPS charged Staples 35 cents per additional $100 of declared value. The lawsuit claimed Staples charged consumers 70 cents and pocketed the difference

Staples argued it was simply making a profit on a product.

A Superior Court judge agreed with Staples but the appellate court reversed the decision and said the extra charge was a “commission” for Staples.