Attorney General Accuses Springfield Gas Station Of Price Gouging

SPRINGFIELD, VA — Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed an anti-gouging lawsuit against a Springfield gas station for charging “unconscionable” prices for gasoline after the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline in May.

The attorney general filed the lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court last Thursday against Tahir and Sons LLC, which operates under the name Interstate Fuel LLC, for alleged violations of the Virginia Post-Disaster Anti-Price Gouging Act.

The lawsuit, the first brought by Herring in response to the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline in May, requests the court, among other things, stop the “illegal practices” by the gas station and award restitution to “affected consumer victims.”

The attorney general’s office contends that from May 1-10, Interstate Fuel sold regular unleaded gasoline at a steady average daily price of about $2.99 per gallon.

On May 11, the gas station’s average daily price of the same type of gas rose to $3.629, or by 21.37 percent, and then again rose to $3.670 from May 12-14.

The gas station’s price for regular unleaded gas climbed as high as $3.989, an increase of 33.4 percent above what the station was charging 10 days before the emergency was declared, according to the lawsuit.

The attorney general’s office argued in the lawsuit the price increases at the Interstate Fuel station were not attributable to additional costs incurred by the business in connection with the sale of gasoline, nor were they due to increases in costs imposed by its source.

Founded in 2016 by Tahir Mahmood, the Interstate Fuel station is located at 7102 Fullerton Road. Patch contacted the company on Monday, but no one was available for comment.

Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency on May 11 to address gasoline supply disruptions across the state due to a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline. On May 7, the Colonial Pipeline system, which is the primary fuel source for many Virginia retailers, reported a ransomware cyberattack that resulted in a temporary shutdown.

Drivers in Virginia and across the Southeast waited in long lines to buy gas during the Colonial Pipeline shutdown.

Herring urged drivers to report suspected price gouging to the state's Consumer Protection Section. The state's anti-price gouging law prohibits retailers from charging a much higher price for necessary goods, like gasoline, during a state of emergency.

As of May 13, around the peak of the outage, 55 percent of gas stations had run dry of gasoline supplies, according to GasBuddy.

In the lawsuit, the attorney general asked the court to award the state all sums necessary "to make restitution to any injured purchasers of gasoline from the Defendant at unconscionable prices during the Disaster Period." The disaster period, also known as the state of emergency was in effect, as ordered by Northam, from May 11 through June 10.

Herring also wants the court to assess civil penalties against the gas station in the amount of $2,500 per violation of the Virginia Post-Disaster Anti-Price Gouging Act. The exact number of violations of the act by the station would be proven at trial, the attorney general said in the lawsuit.

RELATED: VA Gas Shortages May Linger As Colonial Restarts Pipeline