San Diego nutritional supplement company suing Walgreens, alleging coupon fraud; drugstore chain billed Imagetrix for more than US$700,000 for coupons redeemed and scanned, but Imagetrix claims coupons appeared unused

Cindy Allen

SAN DIEGO , January 16, 2012 (Associated Press) – A San Diego company is suing Walgreens, claiming the nation's largest drugstore chain tried to defraud it in a coupon scheme.

U-T San Diego says the suit was filed by Imagenetix, a nutritional supplement company in Rancho Bernardo.

The federal suit filed in November involves discount coupons for its Celadrin Inflame Away product. Walgreens billed Imagenetix for $533,000 worth of coupons supposedly redeemed by customers, along with $188,000 for scanning fees.

But the suit claims the coupons Walgreens submitted to the company appeared unused. They were in pristine condition and in consecutive order.

Walgreens denies the coupons weren't distributed. A spokeswoman says the Illinois-based chain takes misconduct allegations seriously and investigates them thoroughly.

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