By definition, price gouging is the act of increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. It’s also just a shady thing to do, especially when it involves people already reeling from a natural disaster. To that end, Texas is suing three businesses for allegedly price gouging consumers before and after Hurricane Harvey. [More]
price gouging
Best Buy Claims $43 Cases Of Water Were Mistake, Not Post-Hurricane Price-Gouging
By 8.30.17
Most of us can walk into any big box or warehouse store and buy a case of bottled water for less than $10. But one Best Buy store in hurricane-devastated Texas was caught charging between $30 to $43 just for cases of water, leading to claims of price-gouging. Amid the blowback for its egregiously overpriced water, Best Buy is apologizing and claims it was all a mistake. [More]
New York Bars Scalpers From Using Bots To Snap Up Tickets Before Everyone Else
By 11.29.16
Perhaps you’ve been here before: you’re waiting patiently, albeit a bit anxiously, for the moment when you can buy tickets to a concert or sporting event online. But despite your best efforts and quick action, you find that someone has swooped in and snapped up all the tickets, leaving you to the mercies of online resellers that may jack up the cost of tickets. [More]
New York Attorney General Calls For Caps On Ticket Resale Prices, Outlawing Of Scalper Bots
By 1.28.16
When you go to buy tickets for a popular concert or sporting event, you likely know that you’ll ultimately have to make your purchase from a ticket reseller who will mark up the price to try maximize their profit. But the New York state attorney general is calling on the state legislature to put new rules into place that would protect consumers from scalpers who swoop in and buy up every ticket before they are available to actual fans. [More]
Five Airlines Being Probed For Price-Gouging Following Amtrak Accident
By 7.24.15
Five airlines are at the center of a newly opened federal investigation into price-gouging for their actions in allegedly raising airfares following the May derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia that killed eight people and injured 200 others. [More]
Uber Agrees To Not Gouge Riders During Emergencies & Natural Disasters
By 7.8.14
One of the nice things about ride-sharing services like Uber is that the company can compete against taxi cabs by charging decent rates. But the fact that Uber rates are dynamic and can go up in times of high demand means the door could be open to gouging in situations where other transportation options are not available. [More]
NJ Sues Businesses For Price-Gouging After Hurricane Sandy
By 11.9.12
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many businesses in New Jersey and New York raised their prices in response to higher demand or weakened supply. But when those prices are jacked up so high that it’s disproportionate to the additional cost to the business, that’s gouging. Today, the state of New Jersey filed suit against eight businesses accused of crossing that line. [More]
NY Attorney General Tells Retailers They Can’t Just Go Around Inflating Prices Post-Sandy
By 11.5.12
As hundreds of thousands of East Coast residents pull together to offer up goods and services to those devastated by Hurricane Sandy, there are still plenty of businesses and individuals who are willing to make a buck off someone else’s misfortune. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says his office has launched an investigation into claims of price gouging to go after anyone hiking prices on essential items like food, water, gas, batteries, accommodations and more. [More]
NYC Hotels Double Rates On Some Guests, But Is It Gouging?
By 10.30.12
All over Manhattan today, there are hotel guests who were supposed to have checked out but who are forced to stay at least one more night because their flights are canceled — and they couldn’t get to the airport anyway. Making matters worse, a lot of these people are paying higher room rates then they have been. [More]
Gas Station Responds To Higher Gas Prices By Turning Off Pumps
By 10.5.12
A gas station owner in California says prices at the pump have gotten so high that people are no longer fueling up their vehicles at his location. So rather than try charging customers nearly $5 a gallon, he decided to lock up his pumps for the day. [More]
Families Displaced By Storm Accuse Hotels Of Gouging
By 7.3.12
Over this past weekend, some crazy rains tore a path through a portion of the Mid-Atlantic, leaving entire areas without power or other utilities and forcing some residents to turn to hotels for shelter. But some people in New Jersey have accused local hotel operators of trying to cash in on area residents’ misfortune. [More]
People Of Nunavut Tired Of Paying $30 For Coffee, $65/lb. For Chicken
By 6.11.12
Almost four years ago, we marveled at the ridiculously high grocery prices in Nunavut, the largest and northernmost Canadian territory. Now, after years of paying $35 for a bottle of V8, $28 for cabbage and a whopping $65/pound for “Best Value” brand chicken, the folks in Nunavut are fighting back. [More]
Elvis Costello Tells Fans Not To Buy His Pricey New Release
By 11.29.11
Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello is apparently so bitter at the pricing of his upcoming box set that he’s telling fans not to buy it and to spend their money on Louis Armstrong’s music instead. A post on his official site calls the price of The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook “either a misprint or satire.” [More]
Congressman Investigates Possible Drug Distributors' Price Gouging
By 10.6.11
Investigating allegations that several drug distributors are buying scarce drugs and reselling them at massive profit to hospitals, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has started an investigation. The congressman has requested documentation of what the distributors paid for the drugs and the amounts at which they’re reselling them. [More]
Mass. Court Rules It's OK For Town To Charge $320 To Appeal Parking Ticket
By 7.15.11
If you get a parking ticket in Northampton, Mass., don’t appeal it unless you want to bet $320, in addition to the cost of your ticket, that you’ll win. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the town’s appeals process is valid, ruling against a man who appealed two parking tickets and was forced to cough up about $320 in court fees. The original fine was $15. [More]
FDA Lets Pharmacies Compete Against Price Gouging Company Making Pregnancy Drug
By 4.1.11
Reacting to a pharmaceutical company’s seemingly greedy ploy to jack up a premature birth-preventing drug from $10-$20 to $1,500 after the Food and Drug Administration granted it exclusive rights to produce the drug, the FDA shifted course and will allow specialty pharmacies into the market. [More]
Price Of Premature Birth-Preventing Drug Goes From $10 To $1,500 Per Dose
By 3.15.11
After the Food and Drug Administration granted KV Pharmaceuticals sole rights to produce progesterone, a drug that prevents premature births in mothers, the company has begun charging $1,500 per dose of a drug that formerly cost $10. [More]
Social Media Campaigns Urge You To Avoid Getting Gas Today
By 3.10.11
In an effort to prove that demand for gasoline isn’t quite as constant as oilmen would like to think, consumer advocates are taking to social media sites to get drivers to skip trips to the pump today. [More]
