Fastenal ordered to pay thousands for charging hidden fees to Central Coast customers

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION)-- The company Fastenal has been ordered to pay $650,000 for charging hidden fees to customers, many of them on the Central Coast.

The Monterey County District Attorney has announced the county, along with others has entered into a final stipulated judgment with Minnesota-based Fastenal Company that resolves allegations that it charged walk-in retail customers undisclosed “shipping and handling” fees, and failed to conspicuously display the price of each good along with any surcharges to the consumer at the time that the item is rung up in the electronic checkout
system.

Fastenal Company sells industrial and construction supplies at its 138 retail facilities in California, including at its branch stores in Seaside, Salinas, and Soledad.

Since at least 2015, prosecutors alleged Fastenal Company sold certain in-stock goods to walk-in customers at these stores without disclosing that it was adding surcharges for these products, in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law.

Fastenal Company must now pay $625,000.00 in investigative costs and civil penalties, plus $25,000.00 in cy pres restitution to the California Consumer
Protection Prosecution Trust Fund.