If you’ve been skeptical about why Chipotle, or other restaurants’ food, is more expensive when you order online vs. going in person, you are not alone. In fact, there’s currently a class-action lawsuit against Chipotle for this.
What happened?
Angela, known as @thelawyerangela, is your go-to lawyer friend on TikTok for breaking down the complicated stuff and sharing tips to make sure companies aren’t pulling a fast one over on you. Angela has over 1.7 million followers on the app. She says she graduated from Harvard Law School and is an NBC News legal analyst.
In a viral TikTok, Angela breaks down why Chipotle is in the middle of a class-action lawsuit, according to Angela and TopClassActions.com.
Angela claims that Chipotle charged customers fees that it disguised as a tax when customers ordered food via the company’s app or website. For example. Angela demonstrates a check-out screen for an order that has a $10 tax fee. Once you click on the tax, it reveals that only $3.43 is tax, and $7.54 is actually a service fee.
“The class-action lawsuit also notes that separating a delivery fee, which they make visible,” listed as $1 above the alleged $10 tax, “from a service fee, which is theoretically the same thing because it’s not a tip, is not a fair play,” Angela says.
“Chipotle is hiding its hefty service fees inside of a ‘tax’ burrito. This is textbook fraud,” a portion of the lawsuit reads, per TopClassActions.com.
The New York-based attorney’s video has over 20,000 likes and 241,700 views.
@thelawyerangela Have u noticed this?? #chipotle #classaction #lawsuit #classactionlawsuit ♬ original sound – 💥 LAWYER Angela 💥
The Daily Dot reached out to Angela via TikTok message and email and to Chipotle via email.
What are viewers saying?
Customers are in agreement that ordering food online is simply too expensive nowadays.
“My DoorDash & Uber app has been like this for almost 1 year now. The service fee it’s insane + delivery fee +tip, makes it impossible to order. +,” shared one commenter.
“The fees are insane. I’m so tired of my food quite literally costing double (before tip) when using the apps. The service fees annoy me so much and they are higher the more expensive your food is,” shared another.
“I’ve noticed this for a while now. I stopped ordering through 3rd party apps… but nothing is gonna change cuz pple will complain but still place orders and pay the extra fees,” stated another comment.
Not Chipotle’s first-class action lawsuit…
Whether a class-action lawsuit will help or not is a valid question. This isn’t Chipotle’s first rodeo. As Angela mentioned, it previously settled a class-action lawsuit that alleged the company falsely advertised a $1 delivery fee. According to TopClassActions.com, Chipotle paid out a settlement of $4 million.
“When a company tries to get you to make a purchase, they can’t do it through deception,” Angels says in her video.
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