AG's Office Receives 50 Price Gouging Complaints From Highlands

The Florida Attorney General's office has received 50 gasoline price gouging complaints from Highlands County as of noon Monday.

According to Florida law, price gouging on essential commodities, including gasoline, is prohibited during a declared state of emergency.

The state of emergency for Hurricane Ike was issued by Gov. Charlie Crist on Sept. 5. Price gouging is an unjustified increase in the price of a commodity compared to the average price for the 30 days prior to the declaration of a state of emergency.

The statute does permit businesses to pass along cost increases to consumers if those increases can be justified due to higher purchase prices.

Also, Attorney General Bill McCollum has issued a series of subpoenas to four companies, seeking information about reported increases in the price of gasoline throughout the state.

The subpoenas request documentation from the companies detailing the purchase prices the companies paid for gasoline sold at their Florida retail stores. The attorney general issued the subpoenas after receiving more than 350 complaints about gasoline price gouging over a four-day period.

The subpoenas were issued to corporate offices of Flying J, Dodge's Gas Stores, Valero and Pilot Travel Centers. Consumer complaints against these three groups of stations have been particularly high in several areas of the state, including the Tampa region, South Florida, Central Florida, and Tallahassee and the Panhandle.

As of noon Monday, the Attorney General's Office had received more than 700 complaints about gasoline price gouging related to Hurricane Ike.

To report price gouging, call 1-866-9-NO-SCAM (1-866-966-7226).