Florida’s Attorney General is investigating at least 160 cases of price gouging as the state reels from two hurricanes.
Ashley Moody’s rapid response team has received hundreds of complaints of overcharging as some companies allegedly try to cash in on people’s desperation, and the team is visiting people to gather information, Florida’s WFLA TV station reported.
It said the top three counties that reported price hikes after hurricane Helene are Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas, three adjoining counties in southwest Florida. Saint Petersburg is in Pinellas and Tampa is in Hillsborough.
Anna Maria Fiallos, investigator with Pinellas County consumer protection, told the station: “There’s a lot of devastation and unfortunately in any situation, even in a disaster, there’s bad actors that will take advantage of it. That’s why we rely on our residents of Pinellas County to be alert and let us know, so we can go out and do what we can to protect them.”
At a Wednesday briefing with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris warned that the federal government would intervene to stop companies exploiting hurricane victims.
“To any company that—or individual that might use this crisis to exploit people who are desperate for help through illegal fraud or price gouging—whether it be at the gas pump, the airport, or the hotel counter—know that we are monitoring these behaviors and the situation on the ground very closely and anyone taking advantage of consumers will be held accountable,” she said.
Hurricane Milton made landfall late on Wednesday and killed over a dozen people. Nearly two million Floridians were still without power on Friday. Helene killed an estimated 230 people in late September.
United Airlines strongly denied it had jacked up prices as people hurried to flee Hurricane Milton and said a viral online photograph of its fares was inaccurate.
“United capped Florida fares on Sunday,” it told Forbes via email. “Since then, the average price for a one way, economy class ticket to our hubs from affected Florida markets was below $500.”
It also said it added 18 extra Florida flights.
Alan Rubin, cohead of the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Team at the Blank Rome law firm told Newsweek that companies cannot suddenly increase prices for roof repair or debris removal after a hurricane.
“There is a standard rate for most of the services that need to be rendered, for example, debris removal, roof repair, and other standard cleanup services that are provided by either private or state contractors,” he said.
“Price gouging is a particularly egregious activity that state and local municipalities view as being unacceptable and will be treated as such,” he said.
Blank Rome, which has over 600 attorneys in offices throughout the U.S, has had a severe weather team in place for several decades.
Rubin said attorneys general in every state where there is a natural disaster “immediately issue a statement that indicates any price gouging or any attempt to charge more than the going rates prior to the storm will be considered an attempt to price gouge, and that is illegal in any of the states that have been affected by Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Milton.”
“Additionally, prior to impending natural disasters, all gubernatorial offices must ensure that no services being rendered are considered over the normal rates,” he added.
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