Price gouging complaints in SLO County are about to increase, DA says. This is why
After calling on San Luis Obispo County residents to report incidents of price gouging, county District Attorney Dan Dow said Tuesday that his office expects an increase in those reports.
That’s due to changing laws and an increase in local retailers buying certain high-demand goods from overseas retailers at higher-than-standard costs.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-44-20 “fills in a missing gap” left in price-gouging laws by expanding the date from which a price increase is measured, the county District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Tuesday, as well as include retailers who began selling those items — such as hand sanitizer and face masks — since the state’s first coronvirus-related emergency order March 4.
Under the new April 4 order, businesses are prohibited from raising prices more than 10% of any item that it was previously selling on Feb. 4 — replacing the previous March 4 enforcement date, the District Attorney’s Office said.
An exception to the rule is if a business can prove that its own cost for the item increased.
In addition, the state will now consider a new price “unconscionably excessive” if a business marks up that price to the public by more than 50% of its own cost for goods that it hadn’t sold prior to Feb. 4.
Goods and services covered by the executive order include food, emergency supplies, medical supplies, building materials, gasoline, transportation, hotel accommodations, rental housing and freight and storage services, according to the news release.
Dow wrote in the release that the District Attorney’s Office has made the prevention of price gouging ”a top priority” since Newsom declared a state of emergency on March 4.
“We are receiving complaints from our citizens every day, and we are investigating each one,” Dow wrote.
Citing masks and sanitizer as the most in-demand products for retail businesses, Dow wrote that his office expects complaints to “rise soon as several local companies report they are expecting large shipments of face masks from overseas at higher than standard costs.”
Dow said his office spoke in March to local business owners who expressed frustration over high supplier costs and the changing legal landscape around price gouging.
Price gouging is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. Violators may also be subject to civil enforcement actions and penalties up to $5,000 per violation, plus restitution, the release said.
County residents may report suspected price gouging by calling the District Attorney’s Office at 805-781-5800 or by email to sloconsumercomplaint@co.slo.ca.us.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Price gouging complaints in SLO County are about to increase, DA says. This is why."
