Dr. Debra Aron, CRA vice president, advised counsel for a chain of home improvement stores, and provided an expert report on class certification and damages in a purported class action alleging that the Defendant misled consumers about its rebate program.
The Plaintiffs claimed that the Defendant’s rebates program advertisements failed to disclose that the rebates were for store credit only, not cash, and that they required the consumer to mail in the receipt, thereby causing the value of the rebate to be overstated. Dr. Aron showed, by analyzing the data produced in the case, the fraction of customers who were repeat recipients of the rebates in suit and, therefore, arguably were knowledgeable about their terms. In addition, using econometric analysis and other statistical techniques, Dr. Aron found that a measurable subset of rebates recipients would have made the same purchases even without the rebates, only shifting the timing of their purchases to the rebate period. For such customers, the value of the rebate would necessarily be different from the value to the customers who would not have made their purchases apart for the rebate.
The court granted Defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
Dr. Aron was supported by CRA team Dr. Jarrod Welch.
