Kroger Responds to Fuel Marketing Suit

CINCINNATI — In response to a lawsuit filed this week by fuel marketing firm Excentus, Irving, Texas, against Kroger Co. here alleging willful patent infringement, Kroger has filed its own lawsuit.

The retailer is asking a federal court in Cincinnati to declare it has done nothing wrong and to make Excentus pay its legal fees, according to the Associated Press.

Excentus is known for its card-based discount programs that give shoppers cents-off per gallon of gasoline for buying specified grocery products. Kroger said it developed its own ways of linking loyalty card data to its gas pumps, said the AP.

"We believe we have the right to reward our customers, and we are pursuing this to confirm that," Kroger spokeswoman Meghan Glynn said in the AP account.

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