{"id":200703,"date":"2025-12-18T21:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=200703"},"modified":"2025-12-18T21:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:37:12","slug":"yost-announces-menards-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/12\/18\/yost-announces-menards-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Yost announces Menards settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced a $4.25 million multistate\u00a0settlement<\/a>\u00a0with Wisconsin-based home improvement retailer Menards over allegations of deceptive rebate advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An investigation by Ohio and nine other states found that Menards\u2019 advertising often gave shoppers the impression that they would get an immediate discount at the register, but the savings actually came later in the form of in-store merchandise credit.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Dave Yost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cFine print shouldn\u2019t cancel out big promises,\u201d Yost said. \u201cIf a deal isn\u2019t an immediate discount, companies need to say that plainly so consumers can make informed choices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The states raised several concerns with Menards\u2019 marketing and sales practices, including allegations that the company:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Advertised \u201c11 percent off \u201d or \u201c11 percent off everything\u201d in a way that suggested an instant price cut, even though customers received only a rebate to use on future purchases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Listed prices that already reflected an 11 percent discount, reinforcing the idea that shoppers were saving money at checkout.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Failed to clearly explain important limits of the rebate program, burying key details in fine print.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Told customers that \u201cRebates International\u201d was a separate company handling rebates, even though it is operated by Menards itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    As part of the settlement, Menards has agreed to change how it advertises and runs its rebate program by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Discontinuing ads suggesting that store-credit rebates provide an immediate discount.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Clearly and plainly explaining the rules, limits and conditions of its rebate program.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Researching ways for customers to safely submit rebate forms and receipts online.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Exploring options for customers to use rebates on online purchases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Clearly stating that Rebates International is part of Menards.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Giving customers at least one year from the purchase date to submit a rebate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Updating its online rebate tracker within 48 hours after a rebate entry into the system.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Providing clearer rebate status updates, including how returns may affect a rebate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Menards will also pay $4.25 million to the participating states. Ohio will receive $365,173.05, which will go to the Attorney General\u2019s Consumer Protection Enforcement Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Joining Ohio were the attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      VW independent staff\/submitted information COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced a $4.25 million multistate\u00a0settlement\u00a0with Wisconsin-based home improvement retailer Menards over allegations of deceptive rebate advertising. An investigation by Ohio and nine other states found that Menards\u2019 advertising often gave shoppers the impression that they would get an immediate discount at the register, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 04:46:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200704,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200703\/revisions\/200704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}