Dollar General faces FTC lawsuit alleging ‘deceptive pricing practices’

The Federal Trade Commission, along with 20 states, filed a lawsuit against Dollar General last week for allegedly charging customers “more at the register than the prices displayed on shelves, price tags, and advertisements.”

“Dollar General has betrayed the trust of millions of American consumers and imposed significant financial harm on communities and consumers who are already struggling to make their paychecks last,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

The agency defines these disparities as “unlawful overcharges,” which are a result of the company providing “insufficient safeguards to prevent the practice.” The basis for these claims are “tens of thousands of complaints” from customers across the country claiming Dollar General did not honor the displayed price, according to the FTC.

Dollar General denied that the overcharges were intentional or negligent.

“Our goal is 100% accuracy between shelf and register prices in every store,” the company said in a statement. “As with other retailers and despite our policies and procedures, occasional price discrepancies can occur. When that happens, our store teams are instructed, empowered, and expected to make things right for the customer.”

The company plans to “defend this litigation vigorously.”

Payback: Whether the disparities were routine inaccuracies or the result of deceptive practices, some policy experts argue consumers should be made whole regardless.

“The price customers see on the shelf should be the price they pay,” Elizabeth Pancotti, VP of policy, advocacy, and research at Groundwork Collective, a prominent think tank investigating pricing practices, told Retail Brew. “Dollar General owes shoppers a refund.”

The lawsuit overlaps with a broader push from the FTC to investigate pricing practices. The agency last week launched an inquiry into the alleged use of “personalized pricing” by nine major companies, including airlines, food delivery platforms, ride-sharing companies, and two retailers, Walmart and Target.

The issue of pricing disparities is at the center of an ongoing debate over whether companies will use new technologies such as electronic shelf labels to manipulate prices for consumers.

The inquiry will investigate the methodologies companies use to determine how much consumers pay and how much gig workers are paid.

“Consumers deserve to know whether companies use their web surfing habits or other personal data to estimate the highest price they can charge each consumer,” FTC Chair Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement.