The Federal Trade Commission and 20 states sued Dollar General on Monday, accusing the discount retail giant of charging customers more than its advertised prices for years and failing to fix the problem even after it piled up nearly 30,000 complaints. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tennessee, targets a company that sells thousands of household items at low prices to shoppers who often have little financial cushion to absorb being shortchanged at the register.
According to Reuters, the complaint alleges Dollar General has, for years, repeatedly mislabeled prices, overcharged consumers, and failed to correct the issue despite extensive corporate knowledge of the problem. The pricing discrepancies are alleged to have occurred from 2019 through March of this year, according to Bloomberg, which reports the discrepancies generated almost 30,000 consumer complaints to the company during that span.
Thousands of Stores, Millions in Alleged Overcharges
The lawsuit alleges that Dollar General has extracted millions of dollars in unlawful overcharges from customers at thousands of its stores, per Cleveland 19 News. Dollar General operates more than 21,000 stores nationwide, per the same Bloomberg report, making even a small, repeated pricing gap add up quickly across its footprint. Regulators argue that pricing accuracy at Dollar General is especially critical because of how many low- and fixed-income customers rely on its advertised prices to stretch their budgets.
The station's report notes the case follows an earlier dispute in Ohio, where the state sued Dollar General in November 2022 after numerous consumers complained that the retailer was advertising one price on its store shelves, then charging a higher price at registers. That earlier fight ended with a $1 million settlement in 2023 that included specific steps meant to address the pricing discrepancies, according to the same account. Regulators now allege the current practices violate the FTC Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act.
What the Law Requires at the Register
Separately, the New York Attorney General's office has said that under New York law, retail stores must ensure the price charged for an item matches the lowest advertised, written, posted, or marked price offered. State and local laws in New York also require retail stores to score at least 98 percent on pricing accuracy, that office has said, underscoring how tightly regulated checkout pricing is meant to be even before this week's federal case.
Dollar General representatives were not immediately reachable for comment on the complaint, Reuters reported. It remains unclear how the company will respond to the allegations, which have not been proven in court.
