Dollar General is facing fresh federal scrutiny over its pricing practices.
The US Federal Trade Commission said Monday it has filed a lawsuit, along with 20 states, accusing the discount retailer of deceptive pricing on its shelves, price tags, and advertisements.
“Dollar General has, for years, repeatedly mislabeled prices, overcharged consumers and failed to correct the issue despite extensive corporate knowledge of the problem,” the FTC said in a statement.
The company operates more than 21,000 US stores and typically serves customers in more rural and low-income areas of the country.
The filings say Dollar General has received tens of thousands of complaints from shoppers who said they did not receive an advertised price and that the company failed to adequately address the problem.
As a result, Dollar General received millions of dollars from overcharging customers, the FTC alleged.
In a statement, Dollar General said it will defend the lawsuit while remaining open to discussing a resolution.
“The lawsuit filed today by the Federal Trade Commission and several States suggests that we have abandoned our mission and willfully disregarded the affordability needs of our customers. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the statement said.
Dollar General said its goal is accuracy between shelf and register prices. When discrepancies occur, store teams are expected to make things right for customers.
The company said it cooperated with the investigation since February, producing documents, data, and testimony. The FTC and the company had exchanged potential remedies when the lawsuit was filed, the company said.
The action comes less than two weeks after New York Attorney General Letitia James reached a settlement of nearly $1.9 million in food and personal items as a civil penalty for overcharging shoppers in the state. New York did not join the FTC’s complaint.
US consumers have been particularly worried about fairness in retail pricing as more stores introduce digital price tags. Both Walmart and Target have issued public statements promising price transparency and consistency online and at the register. Home Depot recently did the same.
