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ILLEGAL MATTRESS SALES

The mattress industry is still the Wild Wild West

Since 2024, at least five mattress companies, covering a dozen brands, have settled lawsuits claiming their “sale” prices were discounts off prices nobody ever paid.

If you’ve shopped for a mattress online, you’ve seen it. 30% off. 50% off. Up to 60% off. A crossed-out “regular” price sits next to a much friendlier number, and a countdown clock warns you the deal won’t last.

Then the next holiday comes, and the same deal is back. Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Black Friday, New Year’s. For many brands, the sale never really ends.

That raises a fair question: if a mattress is always on sale, was the “regular” price ever real? A growing pile of class action lawsuits says, in many cases, no.

What the law says

A “was” price is supposed to mean something. The Federal Trade Commission’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing say a former price used in a sale comparison must be genuine. If an item was never offered at that price, or only briefly, the FTC considers the bargain false.

California goes further. A retailer can’t advertise a former price unless it was the prevailing price within the past three months, or the ad clearly states when that price applied. That rule is why nearly every case below was filed in California.

Here in the Dakotas

South Dakota and North Dakota have their own rules, and both put the proof on the retailer, not on you.

South Dakota. A store can advertise a price cut only if the ad states what the discount is measured against, or the mattress was actually offered at the higher price for at least seven straight business days in the 60 days before the ad (SDCL § 37-24-6(2)). Any business making a savings claim must keep records for two years showing the claim is true. “Going out of business” sales are limited too: a store can’t keep running one for more than 120 days and then stay open under the same name.

North Dakota. A “was” price has to be the going price within the past three months, or the ad has to say when that price applied (N.D.C.C. § 51-12-09). The Attorney General’s pricing rules go further. A store comparing to its own old price needs real sales at that price, or a genuine good-faith offer at it. A “compare at” or list price has to be one shoppers in the area actually paid. And the word “sale” itself requires a real cut, presumed to be at least 5%.

Who has to prove it. In both states, the store making the claim is the one expected to have the backup. South Dakota requires those two years of records. North Dakota gives a retailer 21 days to hand over proof when the Attorney General asks for it in writing. You don’t have to prove a sale is fake. The store has to be able to prove it’s real.

If a sale looks too permanent to be true, you can report it. In South Dakota, contact the Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Protection at consumerhelp@state.sd.us or 1-800-300-1986. In North Dakota, contact the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division at ndag@nd.gov or 1-800-472-2600, or use its online complaint form.

The brands that settled

Each of these companies denied wrongdoing and settled without admitting liability. But each agreed to pay customers to resolve claims that its discounts were measured against inflated “regular” prices.

Leesa, Brooklyn Bedding, Helix, Bear

Brooklyn Bedding / Night US

2026

$8.16 million

$110 per mattress

Tuft & Needle

Tuft & Needle (Serta Simmons)

2026

About $3 million

Cash or site credit

Nectar, DreamCloud, Siena, Awara, CloverLane

Resident Home (owned by Ashley)

2026

$665,000

$30 voucher

Mattress Firm

Mattress Firm

2025

More than $6.4 million

$40 per mattress

Saatva

Saatva

2024

$11.5 million

$115 per order

The numbers behind these cases are large. Court records in the Brooklyn Bedding case put roughly 74,000 discounted mattresses inside the class. In the Tuft & Needle case, the figure was about 40,000.

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One detail stands out. The Nectar and DreamCloud settlement covered purchases from March 2021 through April 2026. During that time, DreamCloud was regularly advertised at up to 60% off. It still is this November.

Still in court, or unclear

These are allegations, not findings. None of these companies has been found liable.

  • Sleep Number: A California class action alleges the company used false reference prices both on its website and in its stores.
  • Avocado: A California class action alleges the brand falsely advertised sales and discounts on its website.
  • Eight Sleep: An active class action alleges its crossed-out prices hadn’t been charged in the 90 days before the sale, as California law requires.
  • Purple: A 2024 fake-discount case reportedly ended in an undisclosed settlement and dismissal. Some sources still describe it as active.

How to tell if a sale is real

In the moment, you usually can’t. You only see today’s price. But a few minutes of checking goes a long way.

  1. Look up the price history. Google Shopping shows price history for many products, and tools like Keepa track Amazon listings. If the “sale” price is the only price on record, the discount is fiction.
  2. Check the Wayback Machine. Archive.org saves old snapshots of brand websites. Compare a product page across several months and see whether the “regular” price ever applied.
  3. Watch whether the sale ends. If the Labor Day sale turns into the Black Friday sale, then the New Year’s sale, the sale price is the real price.
  4. Be skeptical of countdown clocks. A timer that resets when you refresh, or a deadline that keeps getting extended, is manufactured urgency.
  5. Ask a simple question. In a store: “When did this last sell at the regular price?” A vague answer tells you something.
  6. Compare the total, not the percentage. What matters is what you pay and what you get for it. A smaller discount on a better-built mattress can be the better deal.

Why we’re writing about this

We’ve been building mattresses in Sioux Falls and Fargo since 1994. We sell them factory-direct at a bottom-line transparent pricing structure, so there’s no wholesale markup to inflate and then “discount” away.

We’d rather you judge a mattress by how it’s built and how it feels. Come lie down on one, ask us what’s inside, and ask us anything about price. And because every Comfort King comes with our Lifetime Comfort Guarantee, the value doesn’t end when the sale does.

Sleep well. Live well.

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