Price Gouging Complaint

North Carolina’s price gouging law is triggered when the state suffers or is threatened by a natural disaster (such as a hurricane, tornado, winter storm, or flooding) an emergency (such as a pandemic), or an abnormal market disruption for critical goods and services (such as a gas pipeline issue). Price gouging—or charging too much in times of crisis—is against North Carolina law when a state of emergency is declared or proclaimed by the Governor, the Legislature, a county, or a municipality.

Under the law, the Attorney General’s Office can put a stop to price gouging and seek refunds for consumers who paid too much. The courts may also impose civil penalties against price gougers of up to $5,000 for each violation. The law applies to all levels of the supply chain from the manufacturer to the distributor to the retailer.

Consumers have let the Attorney General’s Office know about price gouging in the past, and we have enforced North Carolina’s price gouging law to win thousands of dollars in refunds and penalties from violators.

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Presently, the price gouging prohibition only applies to the entirety of the following counties, including the jurisdictions of every municipality within said counties:

Alexander, Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Caswell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Gaston, Graham, Guilford, Haywood, Iredell, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Montgomery, Moore, Polk, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rowan, Rutherford, Scotland, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Union, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin and Yancey, as well as tribal lands in the State of North Carolina held by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

There is no current state of emergency for other areas of North Carolina that would trigger North Carolina’s price gouging law. However, if you want to notify our office of a questionable business practice outside of the above Counties, please file a general consumer complaint with us.

For questions about price gouging, call our office toll-free within North Carolina at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.

Price Gouging Complaint Form

Your Information
Name * Required
Prefix First Last
Address * Required
Street Address Address Line 2 City State ZIP Code
Consumer County of Residence
Daytime Phone * Required
Evening Phone * Required
Email * Required
Information About Company Against Which You Are Complaining
Company Name * Required
Company Address * Required
If you do not know the actual company address, please provide the name of street or highway, or intersection where business is located.

Street Address Address Line 2 City State ZIP Code
Company County
What Declared State of Emergency is this complaint related to?
Information About the Product, Item or Service
Product Category
Other
Product, Item or Service involved * Required
Brand/Manufacturer
Size / Amount
If this is a gasoline pricing complaint, please select the grade
Price before disaster
Price as of date
MM slash DD slash YYYY
Price after disaster * Required
Price as of date * Required
MM slash DD slash YYYY
Details of Complaint * Required
Explanation given by business for post-disaster price.
File Upload
Please attach up to four supporting documents in jpg, png, pdf, doc, docx or txt format. You may also mail supporting documents to us.
Drop files here or

Max. file size: 2 MB, Max. files: 4.
Will you be submitting receipts or other documentation by mail or fax? * Required
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Price Gouging Complaint

We Can Help

Price Gouging Complaint Form

Your Information

Information About Company Against Which You Are Complaining

Information About the Product, Item or Service