FORT MYERS, Fla. – A small business in Florida has filed a class-action lawsuit against CBL & Associates alleging that CBL has overcharged thousands of its mall tenants for years through a calculated “criminal enterprise” of inflated electricity charges, charging tenants up to 100 percent more than cost of electricity the tenants actually used, according to consumer-rights law firms, Hagens Berman, Buckner + Miles and Yormak Employment & Disability Law.

According to the lawsuit, CBL promised its small business tenants that their electricity charges would not exceed what CBL was charged by local public utilities for the electricity the tenants actually used, but CBL breached its own lease agreements – and applicable state law – by inflating tenant electric bills up to twice the amount of tenants would have been charged had they purchased electricity directly from the utility company.

The 32-page complaint filed Mar. 16, 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida accuses CBL, one of the nation’s largest mall owner and operators, of engaging in racketeering and conspiracy in violation of Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), breach of contract and violation of Florida’s Civil Remedies for Criminal Practices Act, among other counts.

“For years, CBL has been serving as an illegal middleman, breaching its own lease agreements with small businesses, and inflating electricity bills up to twice what its tenants should have been paying. CBL rigged the system and took advantage of its tenants,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman. “CBL has been caught red-handed, and we intend to make it stop. We want to see every penny from these years of inflated charges returned to tenants.”

The suit seeks relief for all individuals and entities that leased mall space from CBL and paid it monthly energy charges. If you believe you have been affected, contact Hagens Berman to find out your rights.

The suit states that CBL went as far as to attempt to cover up illegal upcharges by inserting a clause into its lease agreements requiring tenants to waive their right to audit CBL’s electric bills. In exchange, CBL agreed that it would not mark up their electricity charges, according to the complaint.

“CBL blatantly lied to its tenants,” Berman said. “Not only did it engage in illegal markups for the cost of electricity in its shopping malls, but it engaged in the very activity it promised it would not do in its own lease agreements.”

“What we have here is a classic tale of David and Goliath,” Seth Miles of Buckner + Miles added. “CBL knew that as a bigger, more powerful entity, it would be able to take full advantage of thousands of small businesses, and it succeeded for years.”

"CBL lined its own pockets, all at the expense of its own small business tenants, many of which struggled to stay open or were forced to close in the wake of the Great Recession," noted Benjamin Yormak of Yormak Employment & Disability Law.

The lawsuit states that “CBL’s scheme was fully unmasked when CBL’s Gulf Coast Town Center mall (GCTC) went into foreclosure and was taken over by CBL’s lender. As a result, a third-party management company was brought in to manage the mall… It became immediately apparent that CBL had been significantly overcharging its GCTC tenants for electricity.”

Find out more about the class-action lawsuit against CBL on behalf of small business tenants in its shopping malls.

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About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is a consumer-rights class-action law firm with offices in 10 cities. The firm has been named to the National Law Journal’s Plaintiffs’ Hot List eight times. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

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