Weekly Message from Attorney General Bill McCollum

Throughout the state this week, Floridians have been facing higher gasoline prices at the pumps as Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas coastline. To date, my price gouging hotline has received more than 7,000 calls and emails about the prices, and we have referred more than 2,600 complaints to my investigators to review for possible price gouging.

According to Florida law, price gouging on essential commodities, including gasoline, is prohibited during a declared state of emergency. Price gouging is an unjustified increase in the price of a commodity compared to the average price for the 30 days prior to the declaration of a state of emergency. The statute does permit businesses to pass along cost increases to consumers if those increases can be justified due to higher purchase prices, etc.

With that in mind, my office has issued four subpoenas to the corporate offices of Flying J, Dodge's Gas Stores, Valero and Pilot Travel Centers. We have requested documentation from the companies detailing the purchase prices the companies paid for gasoline sold at their Florida retail stores because we want to determine whether these increased prices are justifiable by the companies. As Florida's Attorney General, I will simply not tolerate gouging our consumers out of sheer greed.

My office continues to work closely with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as we strive to protect Floridians from price gouging. Reports of price gouging should be reported to my fraud hotline, 1-866-966-7226.