Price gouging complaints rolling in to SC authorities. But will anyone be punished?

Complaints about price gouging in the wake of Hurricane Florence are coming to South Carolina authorities.

The Attorney General’s office has been alerted to 118 businesses allegedly taking advantage of the weather crisis by increasing their prices.

Of the complaints, 33 concerned increased prices on gas. Another 35 accusations came in about lodging establishments upping cost, while 29 calls were about water being overpriced. The AG’s office labeled 21 more complaints as “other.” One “other” complaint was about the price of milk.

“It’s important to keep in mind that a price increase is not necessarily price gouging even if it’s a really big increase,” AG Alan Wilson said in a video statement. “It could be the normal effects of supply and demand. But the state price gouging law does make it illegal to charge what’s called an ‘unconscionable price.’”

None of the complains thus far seem too egregious, says Robert Kittle, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office. The gas prices at two stations seemed the most alarming, Kittle says. No gouging complaints have been substantiated yet.

“Sometimes you’ll get a report but someone was mistaken,” Kittle says.

Such mistaken complaints might occur when numbers fall of a gas station price sign and are put back upside down, making a two look like a five, Kittle says. In 2016 during Hurricane Matthew, Red Roof Inn, the motel chain, blamed a $500-a-night price for one of its locations in Santee, S.C., to a website technical glitch after gouging claims. The lodging company said no one paid the exaggerated price.

When claims of gouging come to the AG’s office, officials there ask local law enforcement agencies to investigate the accusations, Kittle says. Right now no investigations are underway because those local agencies are busy responding in Florence’s aftermath.

“Once they (local law enforcement agencies) can they’ll investigate and report to us,” Kittle says. “We decide whether it fits the criteria (of gouging) and then we’ll proceed with prosecution.”

When an emergency is declared, such as the one Gov. Henry McMaster put into place before Florence hit, the AG’s office enacts special rules to restrict “gross disparity” between the average price of goods before the emergency declaration and the price during the emergency, according to state law.

During the state of emergency that came with Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the AG’s office received 406 price gouging complaints, according to a Jan. 2017 article by Kelly Meyerhfer of the Island Packet. Three months after the storm, none of the claims had resulted in any punishment for anyone. In Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, officials said they were citing several businesses for gouging after Matthew.

By the time of publication Kittle could not provide any instances of price gouging being prosecuted in SC.

“(Anti-price-gouging laws) appear to be passed mostly as a political device, especially in places where enforcement isn’t followed up,” economist Mike Tarrant told the Island Packet in it’s 2017 article on gouging.

In North Carolina through Sept. 18, 650 complaints of gouging were reported as the affects of Florence were being felt. The state’s attoreny general, Josh Stein, told the Will Doran of the News and Observer in Raleigh that investigators were looking into the claims.

Price gouging is a misdemeanor in South Carolina punishable by up to 30 days in jail or a fine or $1,000, or both.

The AG’s office suggest this course of action if you notice price gouging:

1. Note the time, place, address and name of the gas station or business.

2. Note the price you paid.

3. Note any prices nearby and get the same information on those stations or businesses.

4. Take pictures that identify the business, along with the price.

5. Provide your name and contact information.

Then email any examples of gouging or documentation to pricegouging@scag.gov. You also can call 803-737-3953 and leave a message with details of a likely violation.

Caitlin Turner of the Island Packet in Hilton Head Island contributed.