LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County officials urged residents Wednesday to report price gouging — defined as more than a 10% increase — amid the coronavirus pandemic and said investigators have been checking and documenting pricing on essential goods.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas filed a motion to strengthen consumer protections and urged the public to be wary of scams designed to exploit their fears. It’ not immediately clear when the motion would be heard, as the Board of Supervisors has canceled its March 24 meeting “out of an abundance of caution.”
“It is imperative that the county take all reasonable and necessary steps to protect consumers from price gouging during this emergency,” Ridley- Thomas said.
Scams and gouging should be reported to the county’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, which Ridley-Thomas said would coordinate enforcement with the district attorney and attorney general.
The Board of Supervisors’ declaration of a local and public health emergency on March 4 means that it is illegal for anyone to sell or offer to sell any goods or services for a price of more than 10% of what they were charging immediately prior to the declaration.
Investigators have been deployed to document the prices of essential goods such as hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, canned goods and water, in addition to medical-related items such as masks and gloves.
Last week, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced the formation of a task force to protect people from price gouging and false claims on products sold during the outbreak.
How to report price gouging
DCBA Director Joseph Nicchitta urged people contact to DCBA immediately — either online at https://dcba.lacounty.gov/ or by calling 800-593-8222 — when they suspect price gouging or other virus-related scams, including false claims of vaccines or drugs that can protect against the virus.
Criminal penalties for price gouging can lead to up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.
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surfside 6 says
What’s infuriating about liberal government is not just it’s childish list of “do’s and don’ts” but the way it imposes such rules while exempting itself completely! Ever see a police car fleet getting smog checked? Of course not. And those examples are endless. With liberalism, the old “do at your own risk” tradition is over. That’s because in free society, liberals might get hurt. This so-called quarantine does have valid concerns, but the liberal “community” ordered to do so on is responding with wholesale non-compliance. Streets remain crowded and the liberal “community” clusters in numbers like always. But hey, why not? Liberals don’t form “communities” and never have. Liberalism is just concentrations of rude strangers ignoring one another while briskly pursing their own interests. Prediction: Heavy fines will be on the way to garner liberal compliance, and liberals [most eat via food donations already] will be those LEAST likely to comply! Truth told, writing a citation to a liberal is a waste of a perfectly good piece of paper. That’s because a liberal is more the “warrant for his arrest” kind of guy.
Laughing says
Hahaha Okay.
Trumpist#1 says
SS6: Well said, but classic liberalism as we knew it is gone, and radical socialist government has taken over NY, CA, WA, Chicago, Baltimore, etc.
The old mainstream “liberal” Biden has gone full batsh!t socialist, so let’s call it what is is: Radical Socialism.
It has failed consistently, everywhere except in China, lol. Maybe they should move there with Bernie.
****** 4 1/2 ******* MORE YEARS ********KAG
Your intrepid reporter from behind enemy lines in the Socialist Peoples’ Dictatorship of Mexifornia. But the weather’s great!
William says
Well, Trumpist#1, President Obama has had 2 Republican bookends to his 8 years and in both the economy collapsed. He had 8 years with no double-dip recession (or indictments, convictions and prison) but Trump couldn’t go 3 years.
Don’t blame it on COVID-19 alone. We didn’t have stock market crashes after the other epidemics because Trump wasted time and called it a hoax till it was so obvious they had to force him to straighten up.
The idiot Trump stills tells whoppers that Dr. Fauci has to step in and delicately correct the record. No Democratic president was ever that stupid. Don’t forget that.
Trumpist#1 says
Getting Bin Laden and cleaning up little Bush’s unbelievable messes was Obama’s greatest achievements. Bush 43 was the absolute dumbest, arrogant, stubborn sh!thead to serve as POTUS in American history.
Trump has performed beyond anyone’s expectations but caught a bad break. WE, as a country caught a bad break. Now’s not the time for divisiveness.
***** STAY SAFE ******
William says
This is an IQ test for you Trumpist#1.
Answer the following if you knew of any of these events.
Y/N In 2018, Trump gutted the pandemic team and chain-of-command in the White
House. Someone did but he denies knowing about it. It’s his administration.
Y/N The coronavirus was known back in December 1019.
Y/N Trump was notified in January.
Y/N Trump ignored or dismissed the warnings and called it a “hoax” until recently.
Y/N He foolishly came in contact with people who tested positive.
Y/N 4 or 5 REPUBLICANS who also didn’t take it seriously tested positive.
Y/N Trump consistently misinformed the public from the podium and had to be
immediately corrected. People like you bought his misinformation.
Y/N After giving a speech to reassure the country, the stock market had its biggest
plunge since 1987. Wall Street doesn’t trust Trump.
Y/N Divisive, you say? The name of the virus is COVID-19 but your idiot president
started calling it the “Chinese virus” only recently to exploit his “war time president
BS and had to find an enemy. That’s divisive.
Y/N Trump claims not to be responsible for the response but gives himself a 10 for his
management. That’d be 10 out of a 1,000 I suppose.
Y/N Trump turned the job over to Pence who doesn’t think smoking causes cancer.
Y/N Every day the experts such as Dr. Fauci have to correct the nonsense that Trump
says at press announcements.
And, you think he exceeds expectations. A 5th grader could have done a better job than your Trump character.
All that information is readily available and you don’t have to be an “evil genius” such as myself to learn about it. What is keeping you ignorant, Trumpist?
Kdcali says
Still cant do it,So it is what it will be.
Colin says
“Price gouging”, or allowing prices to fluctuate according to supply and demand, has long been acknowledged by economists as the best way to prevent hoarding and shortages in supplies. People buy more of a product when it costs less, and buy less when it costs more. If the government forces the costs of products to be artificially low, then consumers will purchase more of the product than they need, leaving less for others who truly need those supplies. The artificially low prices also gives little incentive for producers to increase supply, leading to greater shortages. I suggest reading pages 58-63 of Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics” for a real education on the effects of governments trying to stop “price gouging”