Montgomery Ward to Pay $310,000 in False Ad Suit

Montgomery Ward & Co., the huge Chicago-based retailing chain, has agreed to pay $310,000 in civil penalties to settle a false-advertising lawsuit filed in June by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

It is the third time in a decade that the company has been ordered by California courts to halt misleading advertising.

Monday’s settlement includes a permanent injunction that applies to all of the company’s stores in California and prohibits misleading advertising tactics.

Those tactics include increasing retail prices before applying discounts, adding items in advertised sale lists that are not offered at reduced prices, and stating that items are on sale for a limited time when the sale actually lasts much longer.

Officials at Montgomery Ward could not be reached for comment. In agreeing to pay the fine and accept the injunction, the company did not admit any wrongdoing.

Jane Shade, the Orange County deputy district attorney who handled the case, said the civil complaint involved advertising campaigns as far back at 1989.

She said the case was developed in conjunction with the Sacramento district attorney’s office, which had obtained a similar injunction against Montgomery Ward in 1990.

“We were getting complaints from consumers,” Shade said, “and we knew that there were two prior injunctions. We felt they weren’t living up to them, so we decided to look at the situation again.”

In addition to the 1990 Sacramento County action, the chain was sued by the state attorney general’s office in the early 1980s and was ordered by the court in that case to cease similarly misleading advertising tactics, Shade said.

The Orange County court order also requires Montgomery Ward to document all price reductions and maintain that documentation and copies of all sale advertisements for at least two years for review by the attorney general’s office or any district attorney’s office.

In Orange County, Montgomery Ward has stores in Buena Park, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana and Mission Viejo.