North Carolina investigating 650 Hurricane Florence price gouging complaints
Price gouging is illegal during disasters and disaster recovery. Its definition under
People typically think of consumers as being the only victims of price gouging, but it's not just retail or services businesses that can be accused. The law applies to all the middlemen in the supply chain, too, to help protect local businesses as well as consumers.
If you suspect price gouging in
As of Tuesday, N.C. Attorney General
The complaints have been for "mostly gas and water," Brewer said. And so far the amount of price gouging is only about half of what the state investigated over the past two years, after Hurricane Matthew in 2016 led to 1,500 complaints of price gouging.
But the state is still in an official state of emergency because of
Anyone who evacuated from the storm to a surrounding state and experienced price gouging there should contact that state's attorney general, instead of Stein's office. Not all states have laws against price gouging, but
Some politicians and economists oppose laws against price gouging because they say the laws violate the principles of free-market capitalism. Others say that allowing businesses to engage in price-gouging would help prevent shortages of supplies before, during and after a disaster.
As The
He wrote an essay that outlined a number of reasons why price gouging should be allowed, including that it could dissuade people from hoarding an unnecessary amount of supplies, and therefore denying others access to those same supplies.
"If prices are allowed to rise as the demand increases, this 'hoarding' behavior will become increasingly more expensive and therefore discouraged," he wrote. "In other words, the higher price encourages conservation right at the time when it is most needed. This will leave more gasoline in the tanks at the gas stations where it is available for those who really need it both before the hurricane and during its immediate aftermath, instead of in the tanks of cars that are sitting in people's garages or driveways."
However, such opinions have yet to gain broad political support in the
Lawmakers here first made price gouging illegal in 2003 and further strengthened the ban in 2006, both times with near-unanimous bipartisan support. The bills were initially passed under Democratic control of the legislature and have remained in place under seven years of Republican control.
Read more of our coverage of Hurricane Florence
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