(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson and 19 other state attorneys general have joined the Federal Trade Commission in its lawsuit against Dollar General, alleging that the retailer has knowingly persisted in overcharging customers and willfully failed to fix its deceptive pricing.
“The prices on store shelves are what customers should be paying,” Wilson said. “Dollar General has allowed the overcharges to continue at the expense of the very people who keep its lights on.”
The lawsuit marks the second time in recent years that the Ohio Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has sued the retailer. The state sued Dollar General in November 2022 after numerous consumers complained to the office that the retailer was advertising one price on its store shelves and charging a higher price at registers.
A year later, the AGO reached $1 million settlement with Dollar General that included specific steps for addressing the pricing discrepancies.
With overcharges continuing in Ohio and other states, the attorneys general joined the FTC’s lawsuit, which alleges that Dollar General has for years mislabeled prices, overcharged consumers, and failed to correct the problems despite company executives’ extensive knowledge of them.
According to the lawsuit, Dollar General:
- Has extracted millions of dollars in unlawful overcharges from customers at thousands of its stores by failing to correct the pricing issues.
- Has been the subject of tens of thousands of complaints from consumers nationwide who say the company did not honor its advertised prices, demonstrating widespread consumer harm and underscoring the retailer’s knowledge of the problem.
The FTC and states allege that these practices violate the FTC Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act.
Joining Ohio and the FTC in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.
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