The Ohio Attorney General and attorneys general from 19 other states have joined the Federal Trade Commission in a lawsuit accusing Dollar General of deceptive pricing practices, marking the second time in nearly four years that the retailer has faced similar allegations from Ohio's attorney general.
Attorney General Andy Wilson said in an Oct. 26 media release that Dollar General has allowed the continued overcharging of customers "at the expense of the very people who keep its lights on."
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, accuses Dollar General of extracting "millions of dollars" in illegal overcharges from customers at thousands of its stores by failing to correct pricing issues. The Tennessee-based
retailer has also been the subject of "tens of thousands" of complaints nationwide from consumers because the company allegedly did not honor their advertised prices, even though the retailer was aware of the problem, according to the lawsuit.
The FTC and the other states suing Dollar General allege that the actions violate the FTC Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act. Other states that are joining 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.
The previous Ohio Attorney General, Dave Yost,sued Dollar General in 2022 and accused the company of violating state consumer protections law by advertising goods for one price on store shelves then charging higher prices at the register.The attorney general's office conducted price testing and found overcharge error rates between 16.7% and 88.2%, Yost's office said at the time. That lawsuit was settled in November 2023 after the company agreed to a $1 million settlement, with $750,000 earmarked for food banks in Ohio. Under the agreement of the settlement, Dollar General did not admit to any wrongdoing.
That settlement also required Dollar General to:
- Ensure that items are rung up at the correct price at the register
- Make sure that district managers conduct random price checks every 45 days
- Make stores that receive 3 failed auditor reports within 6 months complete a full-store assessment and check the price of every item in the store
- Educate all employees about the policy and post signs in its Ohio stores informing customers of the same.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio AG joins lawsuit against Dollar General over deceptive pricing
