The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 20 states filed a lawsuit on Monday against Dollar General over alleged deceptive pricing practices.
The FTC and states claimed that Dollar General, over a period of years, had repeatedly mislabeled prices, overcharged consumers and failed to correct the issue despite corporate knowledge of the problem. Dollar General has disputed those claims.
Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement that "Dollar General has betrayed the trust of millions of American consumers and imposed significant financial harm on communities and consumers who are already struggling to make their paychecks last."
"The FTC's action underscores the agency's commitment to lowering costs for consumers by stopping deceptive pricing practices that harm Americans," Mufarrige added.
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The complaint said that thousands of Dollar General stores have taken advantage of vulnerable shoppers by extracting millions of dollars in unlawful overcharges with insufficient safeguards to prevent the practice.
It added that the company has received tens of thousands of complaints from consumers across the country who said the company didn't honor the advertised price, which suggests there has been widespread consumer harm to shoppers around the country.
States that joined the FTC lawsuit include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.
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Dollar General disputed the claims made in the suit filed by the FTC and states, saying in a statement that "The lawsuit filed today by the Federal Trade Commission and several states suggests that we have abandoned our mission and willfully disregarded the affordability needs of our customers. Nothing could be further from the truth."
"Our goal is 100% accuracy between shelf and register prices in every store. As with other retailers and despite our policies and procedures, occasional price discrepancies can occur. When that happens, our store teams are instructed, empowered, and expected to make things right for the customer," Dollar General said.
The company's statement said that it was made aware of the FTC investigation in early February 2026 and that it "engaged cooperatively" with the FTC and made several company representatives available to provide sworn testimony on relatively short notice.
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Dollar General said that after the FTC concluded sworn testimony, it received a draft complaint along with a draft settlement which demanded a monetary amount that was "untethered to – and orders of magnitude larger than – any realistic assessment of amounts attributable to pricing discrepancies."
The company said that it worked in good faith with the FTC over the next four weeks and explained its issues with the agency's findings, then made a counteroffer for a monetary settlement before the agency filed suit.
"Although we respect the FTC's role in protecting American consumers and the State representatives' role in protecting the citizens of their respective states, we will defend this litigation vigorously," Dollar General added.
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[ H/T Fox Business ]
