Two fast-food restaurants near Ohio State University’s main campus are facing lawsuits over allegations that they offered students the opposite of an extra-value meal.

Although both Potbelly Sandwich Works and La Bamba Mexican Restaurant Group plastered the campus with fliers advertising free sandwiches and burritos for students, they allegedly failed to mention that students would have to apply for a Citibank credit card before they could indulge in the complimentary refreshments.

Ohio’s attorney general, Marc Dann, told The Columbus Dispatch that the companies had broken the law because their fliers did not inform students that, at least in this case, there was no such thing as a free lunch.

Mr. Dann also said that credit-card companies tended to exploit first-year students in the fall by preying on their gullibility and lack of financial savvy in an attempt to lure them into opening excessive lines of credit.

Citibank is also named as a defendant in one of the two cases, as is Campus Dimensions Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company that allegedly helped to dream up the cross-promotional plan. —Elizabeth F. Farrell