2 hrs.
New Jersey has filed civil suits against eight businesses for gouging customers with exorbitant prices during the state of emergency after Superstorm Sandy, the state's attorney general said Friday.
The defendants, seven gas stations and one hotel, are accused of hiking their prices between 11 percent and 59 percent during the state of emergency. The gas stations were charging as much as $5.50 a gallon. The lawsuits were the first ones?filed in the tri-state area under anti-price gouging regulations that came into effect in New York and New Jersey after the storm
?We have received no indication that these defendants faced costs that would have made these excessive price increases necessary or justifiable. One gas station even paid less per gallon for a shipment of fuel after the storm than it had paid before the storm,? Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said in a statement.
New Jersey?s Division of Consumer Affairs received about 162 consumer complaints about the gas stations in question.
The defendants face fines of $10,000 for their first offenses and $10,000 for subsequent offenses. Each sale is considered a separate offense. Prosecutors estimate that the gas station charging $5.50 for regular-grade gas made 230 sales on Nov.1, when the state of emergency was in effect.
On Monday, New York?s Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said New York had ?zero tolerance? for price-gouging and announced that his office was investigating ?hundreds of complaints from consumers? in New York City, the Hudson Valley and on Long Island.
In New York, it is illegal to charge what the law defines as ?unconscionably excessive price[s]? on essentials like food, water, gas, generators, batteries and flashlights, as well as services like transportation.
Most of the businesses accused of price-gouging in the New Jersey suits were gas stations. The combination of pipeline and port closures contributed to a supply squeeze, while the millions of people turning to generators to power their homes after the electricity went out spiked demand for fuel.
In response to long, often acrimonious waits that motorists had to endure at area gas stations, New Jersey implemented an odd-even gas rationing rule a week ago. New York City and Long Island followed suit with alternate-day restrictions that began on Friday morning.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/price-gouging-suits-leveled-against-eight-nj-businesses-1C6972582
breitbart dead db cooper fafsa branson missouri davy jones dead monkees last train to clarksville
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.