GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Colonial Pipeline hack led to people panic buying gas. And that led to postings for gas on Facebook and Craigslist. We found one seller offering what looks like a 5-gallon gas can for $50. You know that's a crazy inflated price and the seller is making a huge profit, and chances are it's likely price gouging. Is there anything you can do about it since this is just some random person?
“The law we have against price gouging in North Carolina applies to a seller. The seller doesn’t need to have a commercial business license to be a seller. Any person who puts something up for sale is subject to our law, even an individual on Craigslist,” said NC Attorney General Josh Stein.
So now the question is, how do you make a complaint to the Attorney General can go after them and do an investigation? It's easy to do online. The complaint form works for an online seller or a gas station or business, it’s all the same.
The complaint form asks for your info and then it will ask you about the seller. If you have pictures or receipts, you can attach them to the complaint form.
Once you've made a complaint, the AG’s office can then investigate to prove price gouging or not. The AG requires the seller, whether it's a person or a business to provide evidence of the amount the seller bought their product for and the AG compares that with the price it was sold for.
There is no set amount or percentage that breaks the price gouging law. The wording in the law is an unreasonable amount.