Class Action

A program offered pre-purchase dining credits from restaurants and then advanced cash to participating restaurants, receiving repayment by retaining a percentage of meals purchased at the restaurant by members. Some of the restaurants filed a class action against the company that ran the program, claiming that the cash advances were really loans and the repayments were usurious interest payments. Bruce L. Ross & Copany determined the amounts actually advanced to and repaid by each restaurant that was a member of the class and whether, assuming the advances were actually characterized as loans, such repayments would be usurious. The team found interest rates far in excess of the legal rates, some in the thousands of percent. The trial court agreed.