Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is suing Dollar General and Family Dollar for having deceptive prices and charging more at the register.
According to the Ohio Attorney General’s website, Dollar General, a company that started in Tennessee, has opened a total of 943 stores statewide since 2015.
“Everything we buy these days costs more – Ohioans can ill-afford businesses that draw people in with the promise of low prices only to deceive them at the checkout counter. This seems like a company trying to make an extra buck and hoping no one will notice. We’ve not only noticed but are taking action to stop it,” said Yost.
The Attorney General’s office received 12 complaints that stated that Dollar General had deceptive practices. Complaints came from the following counties: Cuyahoga, Franklin, Highland, Lucas, Madison, Richland, Summit and Trumbull.
Shortly after the lawsuit with Dollar General, a lawsuit for Family Dollar was filed for similar reasons.
Family Dollar has “engaged in deceptive advertising practices at its more than 400 Ohio locations, charging customers higher prices at checkout than what is advertised on shelves,” said Fox 8 News.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture allows stores to have a 2% error rate in overcharging consumers. However, the Ohio Attorney General says that Butler County’s auditor found that 20 different Dollar General stores had error rates from about 16% to just over 88%.
An article by Fox 19 revealed that 13 Family Dollar stores had error rates within 12% and 84%, far outstripping the allowed rate set by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
According to the Ohio Attorney General, one consumer complaint involved a Franklin County Dollar General that listed a shampoo product for one dollar. When it was rang up at the counter, the product went up to two dollars, instead. In many of the consumer complaints, prices were incorrect and products ended up costing more at the counter.
The lawsuit for Dollar General was filed in Butler County Common Pleas Court, and it names the Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act as grounds for the suit. The lawsuit for Family Dollar was also filed in the same court citing the same violation.
The state of Ohio is seeking out remedies of payment in order to help repay consumers who have been deceived.
“We’re looking not just for reimbursement, but we want a court order to make them stop doing this and to put adequate controls in place so that the price you see on the shelf is the price that they charge at the register,” Yost said in a press release.
Yost said that he was confident that the lawsuits would be successful, and that justice would be obtained.
