KNOXVILLE Tenn. A Long John Silver’s franchisee has filed a lawsuit against quick-service seafood competitor Captain D’s and its parent company, Sagittarius Restaurants, accusing them of deceptive trade practices.
According to court papers filed this week in the Circuit Court for Knox County, Tenn., Captain D’s allegedly ran advertisements in July that offered to honor coupons from local Long John Silver’s restaurants that had closed. The text in the Knoxville News Sentinel read: “With the closing of Long John Silver’s we will Honor any competitor coupons and be Happy to Serve You.”
The problem, according to the market’s Long John Silver’s franchisee, D-Sea Inc., is that no stores in the Knoxville area had actually closed. D-Sea, which is calling for $260,000 in compensatory damages, as well as undetermined punitive damages, court costs and lawyers fees, operates 14 restaurants and said just one location in Loudon County, a separate market than Knoxville, had closed. D-Sea is accusing Captain D's of deceptive trade practices, misrepresentation and consumer law violations, among other charges.
Aspokeswoman for Sagittarius Restaurants said Captain D's had indeed "directed the advertisement in question for publication only in the community in which the closed restaurant was located."
D-Sea said in court papers that the advertisement’s “untrue and intentionally misleading statements ... were calculated to harm the business and goodwill of Long John Silver’s and to benefit the business and goodwill of the defendants.”
The complaint also asserted that the statements in the ad were “made intentionally with malice in negligent or intentional disregard of the truth in an effort to gain an unfair competitive advantage over a competitor, and were published in the largest metropolitan newspaper in east Tennessee, one which serves and is distributed to virtually every county in which the plaintiff owns and operates a Long John Silver’s restaurant.”
Contact Elissa Elan at [email protected].