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“This sort of behaviour is wrong and has no place in our business or Canada’s grocery industry,” said the chairman of both companies, Galen G. Weston, in a statement last week. “This should never have happened.”

At the same time, Loblaw announced the $25 gift card as a sort of goodwill gesture to any eligible customers.

But Vathilakis and the other law firms behind the lawsuits are warning that conditions could be hidden in the gift card’s fine print.

“Most people, or people like me, don’t take the time to read every little provision when they’re signing up or hitting accept on the Internet,” he said on Wednesday.

For instance, he said, one of the conditions could be that people who register for the card can no longer participate in the class-action lawsuit.

“We don’t know any of this yet,” he said. “They may not put any conditions on it at all. But my guess is that Loblaw may want something in return.”

It’s also possible consumers in Quebec incurred far greater losses through the years than the value of the gift card being offered, Vathilakis said.

Joey Zukran, a lawyer with LPC Avocat Inc., which is also behind the Quebec class action, said he feels the gift card offer is more promotional and self-serving than a fair compensation to customers.

“They’re likely going to profit more than anything from it,” Zukran said, adding that customers tend to spend more than $25 once they’re at the grocery store.

“Canadian consumers should not accept anything less than what they are entitled to under the law,” he said.