Stop & Shop customers who placed online grocery pickup orders on or after September 2, 2025 may be covered by a proposed class action alleging The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company quoted fee-free prices and added a $3.95 pickup fee only at checkout. No class has been certified and there is nothing to file yet.
Allegations Only · No Settlement Yet
This article describes a class action complaint. The statements below are unproven allegations. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC has not been found liable, there is no certified class, and there is nothing to claim at this time. This page is informational and is not legal advice.
What Is This About?
A Massachusetts Stop & Shop customer filed a proposed class action on October 15, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Douglas v. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC, No. 3:26-cv-30170. The complaint alleges that when shoppers build an online grocery pickup order on stopandshop.com or the Stop & Shop app, the prices and cart totals they see leave out a $3.95 pickup fee that is added only at checkout.The suit is brought under the Massachusetts consumer protection law, Chapter 93A, and relies on the Attorney General’s fee regulation, 940 CMR 38.00, which took effect September 2, 2025. The case was filed by the law firm Bursor & Fisher, P.A. It is at the complaint stage: Stop & Shop has not filed a response, and the court has not ruled on anything.
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What Does the Complaint Allege?
According to the complaint, the first prices a shopper sees while browsing for a pickup order, and the running total under the cart icon as items are added, do not include the pickup fee. The same fee-free total appears again at the top of the Cart page, where a Checkout button sits within reach without scrolling.The complaint says the higher total appears only lower on the Cart page, below suggested products, where a line labeled “Fees” sits next to a Bottle Deposit Fee. Only by clicking an icon next to “Fees” does a shopper learn that it is a Pickup Fee. A second information icon explains that the fee is not a tip and that pickup attendants cannot accept tips; the complaint argues this says what the fee is not, without ever saying what it is for. Shoppers then pick a pickup time and enter billing information before the final checkout screen shows the full amount.
The complaint claims this sequence makes the fee easy to miss and violates three parts of the Massachusetts rule: disclosing the total price when a price is first shown, disclosing the nature, purpose and amount of fees alongside the total, and disclosing the total before collecting billing information.
What Does the Massachusetts Fee Rule Require?
The Attorney General’s regulation, 940 CMR 38.00, makes it an unfair and deceptive practice under Chapter 93A to advertise or offer a product in Massachusetts without clearly and conspicuously disclosing its total price, meaning the most a consumer must pay including mandatory fees. Shipping charges and government charges can be left out of that total.The rule also requires a seller to disclose the nature, purpose and amount of any added fees when it first presents the total price, to show the final transaction amount before the sale, and to show the total price before asking for personal or billing information. It applies to advertising and offers targeted to Massachusetts or resulting in a sale there, and to practices in force on or after September 2, 2025. The practice it targets is commonly called drip pricing.
Who Would Be in the Class?
The complaint proposes a class of all individuals in the United States who placed Online Pickup Orders through stopandshop.com or the Stop & Shop mobile app on or after September 2, 2025. It excludes any entity Stop & Shop controls and Stop & Shop’s officers and directors. The complaint estimates the class at tens of thousands of people at a minimum.No class has been certified. A court would decide later whether the case can proceed as a class action and, if so, who belongs to the class.
What Is the Lawsuit Seeking?
Chapter 93A, Section 9(3) allows a person injured by an unfair or deceptive practice to recover actual damages or $25, whichever is greater, and two to three times that amount when the violation was willful or knowing. The complaint seeks those damages for each class member, alleging the violations were willful or knowing, along with an injunction against the fee presentation, restitution, interest, and attorneys’ fees and costs.Chapter 93A requires a written demand before suit. The complaint says the plaintiff’s lawyers sent Stop & Shop a demand letter on behalf of the class on September 11, 2026, and that Stop & Shop did not make a written settlement offer for the class in response. These are the complaint’s requests; no court has decided whether Stop & Shop owes anything.
What Happens Next?
Stop & Shop will have the opportunity to respond to the complaint, which in consumer cases often means a motion to dismiss. If the case survives, the parties would move toward discovery and a request for class certification. No schedule had been set as of October 15, 2026.There is nothing for shoppers to file. If the case ends in a settlement, a claim process would be announced through a court-approved notice and an official settlement website. Other suits over fees added late in checkout include the DoorDash DashPass delivery fee lawsuit and the Uber Eats priority fee lawsuit.
Questions
Does the Stop & Shop lawsuit cover delivery orders or in-store shopping?
The proposed class is limited to Online Pickup Orders placed through stopandshop.com or the Stop & Shop app on or after September 2, 2025. The complaint does not make claims about delivery orders or in-store purchases.
Are Stop & Shop shoppers outside Massachusetts included?
The complaint defines the proposed class as everyone in the United States who placed an Online Pickup Order since September 2, 2025, but its only claim is under Massachusetts law. The Massachusetts fee rule applies to advertising and offers targeted to, or resulting in, a sale in Massachusetts. Whether shoppers in other states can be part of the class is a question the court has not decided.
Is the bottle deposit fee part of the Stop & Shop lawsuit?
The complaint notes that a Bottle Deposit Fee appears next to the pickup fee at checkout, but its allegations about undisclosed fees center on the $3.95 Pickup Fee.
What does the $25 figure in Chapter 93A mean?
Chapter 93A, Section 9(3) lets a court award a person injured by an unfair or deceptive practice either actual damages or $25, whichever is greater, and two to three times that amount for a willful or knowing violation. The complaint asks for those damages for the class. No court has found that Stop & Shop violated the law, and nothing has been awarded.
Has Stop & Shop responded to the pickup fee lawsuit?
As of October 15, 2026, the docket showed only the complaint, filed that day. Stop & Shop had not filed a response, and no judge assignment appeared on the public docket.
Read the Complaint
Sources
- Class action complaint, Douglas v. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC (October 15, 2026)
- Case docket on CourtListener (D. Mass. No. 3:26-cv-30170)
- 940 CMR 38.00: Unfair and deceptive fees (Massachusetts Attorney General)
- Attorney General’s statement on the rule’s effective date
