The Eddie Bauer lawsuit picture has two very different pieces. On February 9, 2026, Eddie Bauer LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey and began liquidating nearly all of its North American stores.1CNN. Eddie Bauer Bankruptcy Separately, the company is still defending two proposed class actions over deceptive pricing and misleading discount emails, and it previously paid $9.8 million to settle claims tied to a 2016 data breach.
The 2026 Bankruptcy Filing
Eddie Bauer LLC and four affiliated entities filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions on February 9, 2026, under lead case number 26-11422 before Judge Stacey L. Meisel in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.2PACER Monitor. Eddie Bauer LLC Marc Rosen, CEO of Catalyst Brands, the parent operating platform that held the Eddie Bauer retail license, cited declining sales, supply chain problems, inflation, and uncertainty around the Trump administration’s tariff policies as the reasons for the filing.1CNN. Eddie Bauer Bankruptcy The company listed roughly $1.7 billion in total funded debt, with Wells Fargo owed over $900 million, WhiteHawk $600 million, and Copper Retail $216 million.3Financier Worldwide. Eddie Bauer Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
The retail operator had posted $440 million in revenue in fiscal year 2025 but had accumulated $174 million in losses over the preceding four years.4NJBiz. Eddie Bauer Cancels Auction NJ Retail Leases5Law360. NJ Judge Clears Eddie Bauer Retail Operator’s Ch. 11 Plan The government bar date for filing claims is August 10, 2026. Creditors can search the claims database and case documents through Stretto’s online portal.6Stretto. Eddie Bauer LLC Case Information
The bankruptcy did not sweep in the whole brand. Weeks before the filing, Authentic Brands Group transferred Eddie Bauer’s e-commerce and wholesale businesses to a separate licensee called Outdoor 5 LLC, and those operations were explicitly excluded from the Chapter 11 case and kept running.7Business of Fashion. Eddie Bauer LLC Files Bankruptcy With Plans to Sell Stores8CNBC. Outdoor Sportswear Pioneer Eddie Bauer Again Files for Bankruptcy Roughly 20 Eddie Bauer stores in Japan, run under a separate licensing arrangement, were also unaffected.9Cleveland.com. Nearly 200 Clothing Stores Closing After Bankruptcy Filing Authentic Brands Group kept the Eddie Bauer intellectual property throughout.
What the Store Closures Meant for Customers
Eddie Bauer first tried to sell its retail footprint as a going concern and scheduled an auction for March 6, 2026. No qualified bidders came forward by the March 3 deadline, so the auction was canceled and the company moved to full liquidation.10Retail Touchpoints. Eddie Bauer Cancels Store Lease Auction, Plans to Close 174 Stores Closing sales rolled through nearly 200 locations across 40 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, and were projected to wrap up before April 30, 2026.11Yahoo Finance. Eddie Bauer’s Nearly 200 Stores
Customers had until March 12, 2026, to redeem gift cards and Adventure Points loyalty rewards in stores. After that date, neither was accepted, and gift cards could not be used online at any point during the wind-down.12CT Insider. Eddie Bauer Gift Cards Deadline Closing Bankruptcy All liquidation sales were final, with no returns or exchanges.13NJ.com. Eddie Bauer Is Closing: How Much Time You Have Left to Spend Your Rewards Holders of unredeemed gift cards or rewards past the deadline generally became unsecured creditors of the bankruptcy estate rather than customers with usable balances.
Clark v. Eddie Bauer: Outlet Pricing Class Action
Susan Clark filed suit in July 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, accusing Eddie Bauer and SPARC Group of running a “massive false discount advertising scheme” at Oregon outlet locations. The complaint alleged that outlet garments were perpetually marked as “discounted” against fictitious “tagged list prices” or “reference prices,” and that “comparable value” labels were never substantiated.14FindLaw. Clark v. Eddie Bauer LLC, SPARC Group LLC
The case had a bumpy path. The district court initially dismissed it with prejudice, holding that Clark failed to plead an “ascertainable loss” under Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act and that the claim was time-barred. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit certified the loss question to the Oregon Supreme Court, which in 2023 adopted a “purchase price theory”: a consumer suffers a cognizable injury when they spend money in reliance on a deceptive price representation they otherwise would not have spent. Applying that ruling, the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal in January 2024 and held that Clark had standing and could seek injunctive relief, though it denied her requests for disgorgement and restitution.14FindLaw. Clark v. Eddie Bauer LLC, SPARC Group LLC The full Ninth Circuit refused to rehear the case in March 2024.15Law360. 9th Circ. Refuses to Review Eddie Bauer False Ad Suit Revival
On remand, Eddie Bauer moved again to dismiss on statute-of-limitations grounds. Judge Richard A. Jones denied that motion on March 12, 2025, ruling the discovery rule applied because the pricing scheme was hidden and Clark could not reasonably have discovered it until she saw legal advertising about the practice in 2020.16Law360. Eddie Bauer Can’t Ditch Outlet Tag False Ad Action The February 2026 bankruptcy filing would have triggered an automatic stay of the litigation as to the debtor entities, though no specific stay order for the Clark case appears in the available bankruptcy docket.
Harbers v. Eddie Bauer: Deceptive Email Class Action
A separate proposed class action targets Eddie Bauer’s email marketing. Jennifer Harbers sued in 2019 in the Western District of Washington, alleging that Eddie Bauer sent emails with subject lines promising “site-wide” discounts or percentages off “everything” while actually excluding certain merchandise, such as third-party products.17Bloomberg Law. Eddie Bauer Keeps Deceptive Email Class Action in Federal Court The complaint also accused the company of inflating original price points and rarely, if ever, selling products at the advertised list price.18ClassAction.org. Eddie Bauer Sent Misleading Emails Advertising False Discounts, Class Action Alleges
After the case was removed from state to federal court, the judge rejected Harbers’ argument that she lacked Article III standing. The court ruled that the Washington Commercial Electronic Mail Act creates a legal right to be free from deceptive commercial emails and that a violation occurs any time a prohibited message is sent.17Bloomberg Law. Eddie Bauer Keeps Deceptive Email Class Action in Federal Court
The 2016 Data Breach Settlement
Eddie Bauer previously paid to resolve claims arising from a 2016 breach in which hackers installed malware on the company’s point-of-sale systems at roughly 350 stores across the U.S. and Canada. The compromised information included customer names, credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates, and card verification values.19Tousley Brain Stephens PLLC. $9.8 Million Settlement Agreement Preliminarily Approved in Eddie Bauer Data Breach Class Action Veridian Credit Union filed a class action in March 2017 in the Western District of Washington, and after two years of litigation and mediation, the parties reached a $9.8 million settlement that Judge James L. Robart approved on October 25, 2019. Of that amount, $5 million was earmarked for security-system improvements, about $2 million covered attorney fees and administration, and between $1 million and $2.8 million went to class members, with individual payouts starting at $2 per affected card.20Tripwire. $9.8M Settlement to Eddie Bauer Data Breach Filed in Federal Court
Not Eddie Bauer’s First Bankruptcy
The 2026 filing is the brand’s third trip through bankruptcy court. Eddie Bauer was acquired by catalog retailer Spiegel Inc. in 1988 and was swept into Spiegel’s Chapter 11 filing in New York in March 2003; dozens of stores closed and the brand was spun off as an independent company in 2005.21Star News Online. Spiegel, Owner of Eddie Bauer Stores, Files for Bankruptcy Eddie Bauer filed Chapter 11 again in 2009, and private equity firm Golden Gate Capital acquired it out of that bankruptcy for $286 million. Authentic Brands Group and SPARC Group bought the company in June 2021, with ABG taking the intellectual property and SPARC operating the stores.22Golden Gate Capital. Authentic Brands Group and SPARC Group to Acquire Eddie Bauer SPARC merged with JCPenney in January 2025 to form Catalyst Brands, which took over the retail license roughly a year before filing the current Chapter 11 case.8CNBC. Outdoor Sportswear Pioneer Eddie Bauer Again Files for Bankruptcy