The North Carolina attorney general’s office has received over a thousand coronavirus-related price gouging complaints. Among them: a Facebook marketplace seller asking $100 for a roll of toilet paper.
Of the approximately 1,200 complaints made since a state of emergency was declared and the price gouging law went into effect, 54 percent involve grocery items, TV station WTVD reported. Consumers also reported being charged too much for hand sanitizer, cleaning products and face masks.
Attorney General Josh Stein’s office says it is investigating nine North Carolina-based sellers on Amazon. Those sellers are accused of raising prices on coronavirus-related products by more than 40 percent, the station reported.
At a time when North Carolinians are trying to take care of themselves and their families in the face of an unprecedented crisis, some sellers are instead focused on unfairly taking people’s money,” Stein said in a statement. “My office will investigate these cases and take action if we believe they’ve violated the price gouging law.
Offenders face a penalty of up to $5,000 per violation.
Photo via NC Department of Public Safety.
Related Stories
‹

Tracking the Number of Coronavirus Cases in North Carolina 
North Carolina Shatters Single-Day Record With 10,000 New COVID-19 CasesNorth Carolina reported 10,398 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, shattering the single-day record for new cases as the state continues to see a significant spread of the virus. North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services reports a total of 592,746 coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, the state reported 137 […]

NC Introduces COVID-19 County Alert System Amid Record HospitalizationsGovernor Cooper announced that North Carolina is introducing a county alert system to identify counties with the highest levels of COVID-19 community spread.

North Carolina Reports Highest Single-Day Increase in COVID-19 CasesNorth Carolina reported 2,532 new coronavirus cases on Thursday — the highest single-day increase in cases since the pandemic began. Data from North Carolina Health and Human Services revealed the increase, marking a new high as North Carolina has seen recent steep increases in positive COVID-19 cases. The department reports the state has experienced an increase […]

North Carolina to Relax 10-Person Limit for GOP ConventionNorth Carolina will ease gathering restrictions for the Republican National Convention in Charlotte this month after a push by the national party for the state to be more accommodating. But the Aug. 21-24 event culminating in President Donald Trump’s nomination will be nothing like conventions of previous years in which prominent politicians and party leaders […]

Bill to Reopen NC Gyms, Bars Sent to Skeptical Governor After Passing HouseThe North Carolina legislature passed another bill on Wednesday overturning parts of Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order that keep certain businesses closed to discourage the spread of COVID-19. As with previous legislation sent to him seeking to reopen bars, Cooper is also likely to veto the latest measure, which also ends the shuttering of gyms […]

Trump Threatens to Move RNC Without Assurances from Governor CooperPresident Donald Trump threatened Monday to pull the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina if the state’s Democratic governor doesn’t immediately sign off on allowing a full-capacity gathering in August despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s tweets about the RNC, planned for Charlotte, come just two days after North Carolina recorded its largest daily increase in […]
![]()
N.C. Farmers Start Euthanizing 1.5M Chickens Amid PandemicCoronavirus outbreaks at meat processing plants are forcing North Carolina farmers to euthanize 1.5 million chickens, according to a state official. Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Joe Reardon told The News & Observer that this is the first time during the pandemic that North Carolina farmers have had to euthanize their animals. Roughly a third of the […]
![]()
North Carolina Jobless Rate Increases to 12% Amid COVID-19North Carolina’s unemployment rate ballooned to just over 12% in April as the state dealt with a coronavirus-related economic slowdown, state officials said Friday. The rate represents a nearly 8 point increase from the rate in March, which had been around 4 percent. The national rate for April was 14.7%. The number of people classified […]

State Health Department: COVID-19 Reaches All 100 North Carolina CountiesNorth Carolinians have been experiencing the COVID-19 outbreak for months, with nearly all residents seeing the virus impact how the live their daily lives. But before Tuesday, the coronavirus had not been reported in every county. Avery County, in the northwest region of the state bordering Tennessee, was the final county to have not recorded […]
›
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines