New Jersey investigating reports of price gouging

Your choice: do you want to have no gas or high prices

NewsNM:Swickard - We want prices at the very top during an emergency so that people do not fill up their gas tank, they just take the four gallons they need to exit the area. Then four more cars can each get the four gallons they need to leave the area with the twenty gallons the first driver would have taken if the price had been normal. If the price does not skyrocket then the first 100 cars buy all of the gas from that station and the next 400 cars are parked on the side of the road, out of gas, with the people walking. How much is gas worth when you have none? From NBCNEWS.com - Prices for gasoline, hotel rooms, electrical generators and other post-storm necessities have risen sharply from New York to West Virginia in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and many residents are complaining of gouging.

In New Jersey alone, about 100 consumers have called the attorney general’s office to complain, said Neal Buccino, spokesman for the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs.“Some gas stations have raised their prices by 20 to 30 percent in one day,” Buccino said. “Some hardware stores have doubled the price they charge for generators overnight.”

Those types of increases would appear to be illegal under New Jersey’s anti-gouging law, which prohibits price hikes of more than 10 percent in an emergency. The law does make an exception for merchants who face increased costs, but the markup is still limited to 10 percent above normal, according to the state attorney general’s office. The state has deployed teams of investigators to check out complaints against specific retailers.
Violations are punishable by $10,000 fines. At least one gas station operator paid $20,000 to settle gouging charges in New Jersey related to Tropical Storm Irene last year. Read more

New Jersey investigating reports of price gouging