New class action alleges Build-A-Bear extends sales its emails advertised as ending.

Caitlin Coelho filed a class action lawsuit against Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. in Adams County Circuit Court in Indiana on Oct. 12, 2026.

The lawsuit claims the retailer sent Indiana residents promotional emails with subject lines announcing sale deadlines it later extended.

Indiana's law on misleading subject lines

Indiana’s Deceptive Commercial Electronic Mail Act bars commercial emails with false or misleading subject lines when the sender knows, or has reason to know, an Indiana resident holds the address. The case rests on that one statute.

The alleged Build-A-Bear emails

The proposed class action alleges the company runs the same email cycle again and again: It launches a sale with a firm end date, sends follow-ups warning the sale will end soon then extends the deal.

The lawsuit cites five Build-A-Bear campaigns, including three 2025 emails Coelho claims she received at her personal email address:


  • On Sept. 9, 2025, a today-only email promoted a two for $25 deal on Lil' Cubs, and its fine print limited the offer to that day. A Sept. 10 email extended the deal for one day.

  • An initial Nov. 11, 2025 email presented $11.11 deals as a one-day sale. Build-A-Bear reportedly sent a second email later that day extending the deal.

  • On Nov. 27, 2025, an email announced Black Friday deals starting at $10 online, and a Nov. 29 email extended the sale through Nov. 30.

The other two campaigns, a 2023 Cyber Monday sale and an April 2024 site-wide sale, allegedly followed the same pattern.

The complaint cites the FTC's Bringing Dark Patterns to Light report, which lists false limited-time messages among tactics that pressure people to buy right away. Such false urgency wastes shoppers' time and keeps them from looking around for better deals, the lawsuit contends.

Coelho alleges the emails' subject lines violated her right under DCEMA to be free from the annoyance and harassment of deceptive spam. On residency, the filing claims a company of Build-A-Bear's size could tie email addresses to states through purchase records, IP address tracking or data brokers.

What the lawsuit means for Build-A-Bear email subscribers

The proposed class covers Indiana residents who received a commercial email from Build-A-Bear, or one it helped send, with a subject line that misrepresented the facts of a sale, deal or other promotion between Oct. 12, 2020, and the date the court certifies a class.

Coelho seeks $500 per email or actual losses, whichever is more, plus legal costs and an order barring misleading subject lines in the retailer's future emails to Indiana residents.

There is no settlement, no claims process and no money available at this time.