CA Sues Major Retailer Over Deceptive Pricing Allegations

California is one of 20 states that have joined the Federal Trade Commission in suing Dollar General. The lawsuit accuses the discount chain of routinely charging shoppers more at the register than the prices shown on its shelves, price tags and ads.

The complaint was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. It alleges Dollar General has known about the problem for years, failed to fix it and cost customers millions of dollars.

Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said 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 other states in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.

'Did Not Honor Marked Price'

According to the 95-page complaint, Dollar General received at least 29,265 customer complaints categorized as “Did Not Honor Marked Price” between Jan. 1, 2023, and March 31, 2026. The complaints came from all 48 states where the company operates.

FTC investigators also went shopping. Between Jan. 16 and April 1, 2026, they made undercover purchases at Dollar General stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Maryland.

“Every single undercover purchase resulted in Dollar General charging more at the register than the price advertised for multiple products,” the complaint stated.

Since 2019, Dollar General has settled seven state cases with six attorneys general and consumer protection agencies over pricing errors, paying more than $6 million, according to the complaint.

The complaint stated that Dollar General “routinely fails pricing inspections across the United States.” Most states treat an inspection as failed when more than 2 percent of items checked are priced incorrectly.

Dollar General changes prices weekly. Employees are supposed to swap out shelf labels during a five-hour “Compliance Tuesday” shift, the complaint stated. Most price changes are increases, though, so when the register updates before the shelf tag does, the shopper usually pays more.

The complaint stated that stores are often “too thinly staffed” to print new labels and put them up. It cited a news article sent to the company’s CEO in which a former assistant manager in Illinois said: “You’re lucky if you get to work two to four hours of your eight-to 13-hour shift with another human being.”

Dollar General Responds

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Dollar General argued that the action “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," the statement said. "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's statement also said that the FTC had, in talks prior to the lawsuit's filing, “demanded a monetary amount that was untethered to — and orders of magnitude larger than — any realistic assessment of amounts attributable to pricing discrepancies.”