Mississippi, the Federal Trade Commission and 19 other states have sued Dollar General alleging the company repeatedly overcharged customers across the country.
The lawsuit claims that the prices customers see on items on shelves and in advertisements are not what gets rung up at the register when they pay.
“Dollar General has for years engaged in deceptive conduct that harms the very consumers it claims to service,” the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tennessee on Monday, said.
The Mississippi Attorney General’s office is suing for the state and did not respond to a request for comment.
The discount store operates over 20,000 stores in the United States, with around 670 in Mississippi and 685 in Louisiana. In 2023, Mississippi Public Broadcasting reported Mississippi had the most Dollar General stores per capita in the country.
The lawsuit claims the overcharging pattern has persisted for years, despite internal company data, almost 30,000 consumer complaints from across the country and penalties from state regulators.
Dollar Generals are a common site in rural towns across Mississippi and the country. The chain promises discounts and low prices for customers, and has grown over the past decade, building stores in small, mostly rural, communities. The lawsuit said that the company’s main customers are low- and fixed-income households that “depend on Dollar General’s pricing accuracy for basic financial stability.”
“Althought Dollar General promises convenience, low prices and value, the company has routinely charged customers more at the register than the prices displayed on shelves, price tags, and advertisements,” the lawsuit said.
The company denies the lawsuit’s claims and said in a statement it would “defend this litigation vigorously.”
“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,” the company statement said.
The company said that there are bound to be “occasional price discrepancies” but its goal is “100% accuracy between shelf and register prices in every store.”
This is not the first time the company has faced trouble over its pricing.
Last year, Dollar General paid $15 million to settle multiple lawsuits over its pricing practices. Although the company denied any wrongdoing.
Also last year, an investigative series by the Guardian found that over three years, Dollar General stores across the country had failed over 4,300 price-accuracy inspections in 23 states.
The lawsuit documents numerous examples of Dollar General customers paying more than they expected at the cash register.
In February, a Mississippi customer complained that the dog food she bought was listed as $24.95 on the company’s website but she was charged $29 at the store. A Louisiana consumer was told that the store could not honor the sales prices that were listed in the flyer she received from the company because the sales prices were not in the register.
While a few dollars here and there may seem insignificant, over years and millions of purchases the lawsuit said that Dollar General has “extracted millions of dollars in unlawful overcharges” despite knowing about the pervasive problem.
“As a direct result of Dollar General’s unlawful conduct, consumers nationwide have paid significantly more than they expected for basic household goods and necessities, enriching Dollar General at the expense of the low-income and rural households it markets itself as serving,” the lawsuit said.
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