Arizona Attorney General (AG) Kris Mayes has joined the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 19 other states in a lawsuit against retail chain Dollar General for allegedly deceiving customers on the prices of its products.
The Suit
A complaint filed by the FTC alleges that Dollar General has repeatedly mislabeled prices, overcharged consumers, and failed to correct the issue despite extensive corporate knowledge, a problem that has persisted for years despite thousands of customer complaints.
Joining the FTC and Arizona in the suit are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.
Last June, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) similarly demanded answers from supermarket chain Kroger for having allegedly been charging customers full price for various items, including meat, vegetables, juice, rice, and alcohol, despite the products being advertised as being on sale.
What Mayes is Saying
"Dollar General has ripped off Arizonans by systematically charging more for products than they advertised," AG Mayes said in a statement, adding, "The Arizona Attorney General's Office will not allow greedy corporations to lie to their customers and take financial advantage of communities who can least afford it."
October Suits
AG Mayes has filed several suits in October against companies for apparent malpractice, starting with social media giant TikTok for engineering its platform to maximize compulsive use of the app among minors and failing to moderate the content they see.
The following week, the Arizona Attorney General went after OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, for similarly failing to disclose that ChatGPT's features make the chatbot dangerously agreeable and sycophantic in order to keep people, including minors, on the platform.
The most recent suit filed by Mayes targets the online gaming platform Roblox, which has also gained infamy for its alleged failure to protect its user base from child predators, exploitation, and graphic sexual or violent content.
