Sav-on Drug Settles False-Advertising Case : Retailing: The chain will pay fines and expenses of $110,000. It says employee errors led to the overcharges in question.

Sav-on Drug’s owner agreed Friday to pay $110,000 in fines and expenses to settle charges that the chain overcharged customers on merchandise advertised at special sale prices.

The settlement with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office follows similar false-advertising cases brought in recent years against K mart and Thrifty Corp., the state’s biggest drugstore chain.

Sav-on blamed the overcharges on employee errors, and said it is installing computerized cash registers as part of its effort to eliminate the problem.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Healey said the investigation of Sav-on was launched in July, 1989, when county agents checked 14 of the chain’s drugstores.

The investigators, responding to a consumer complaint, bought items at random to determine whether the prices paid at the cash register matched advertised prices.

The result: Investigators were charged higher-than-advertised prices at 13 of the 14 stores. They were overcharged on 81 of the 230 items they bought, paying $1,074 on goods advertised at $944.

Michael Miller, the Sav-on spokesman, said the case involved “lack of communication” among store employees. “We’ve taken substantial steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

The company, Healey said, “was genuinely apologetic and seemed anxious to clear up the problem.”

Along with accepting the fines and negotiated penalties, Sav-on agreed to a five-year injunction against false advertising.

Healey said the company could be subject to huge penalties if it is ever found to deliberately violate the injunction, with fines of as much as $2,500 for every customer who is overcharged.

Sav-on, with 163 locations in California, is the state’s third-largest drugstore chain and is second in Southern California only to Thrifty.

Sav-on is operated by American Drug Stores, which in turn is owned by Salt Lake City-based American Stores. Other American Stores holdings include Lucky and Alpha Beta supermarkets.

In a similar false advertising case settled in 1987, Thrifty agreed to pay penalties of $117,940 after a year of negotiations with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Last year, K mart agreed to pay Los Angeles, Kern and Kings counties $450,457 in connection with an overcharging case.