FINED FOR ‘GOUGING’

Teresa Williams

May 27, 2009 08:58 pm

— THOMASVILLE — Ten area gas stations have reached settlements with the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs as a result of recent price-gouging investigations, officials said Wednesday.
Gas stations in Thomasville, Cairo and Meigs (see list below) all agreed to pay fines and offer restitution following investigations into price-gouging after Gov. Sonny Perdue passed an executive order on Sept. 12, 2008, due to Hurricane Ike’s effect on the distribution of gasoline.
“In these agreements, while companies admit no wrongdoing, they have admitted into assurance of voluntary compliance, a court-filed document, in order to resolve the allegations from this office,” Shawn Conroy, OCA spokesperson, said.
Gary Patel, who owns six stores in Thomasville and one in Cairo — including Granny’s Country Store and L & G Food Mart #2, #3 and #4 — said he tries to keep his gas at least one to two cents lower than the competition at all times.
“When the storm hit, what happened was everybody went up and we went up,” he said. “When everybody goes down, we go down, too.”
Patel said there were stations with prices much higher than his at the time and felt these should have also been fined.
The OCA received more than 2,000 complaints or inquiries about price gouging or gas shortages from that time period and is still investigating cases, according to its Web site price gouging status report.
As of May 15, 91 cases have been resolved: 26 unfounded and 65 with a finding of price gouging.
Cases were evaluated on the individual facts, Conroy said. The settlements with violators included fines, consumer restitution or both.
Fines depend upon the length of violation and all fines collected are deposited in the state treasury.
“The goal is to enforce the law,” Conroy said. “And, once we penalize a company, they tend not to do it again. At the same rate, we don’t have the power to shut down a business or put them out of business.”
Under Georgia law, price-control statutes are activated upon the governor’s declaration of a state of emergency, which prevents retailers from selling goods or services at unreasonable or egregious prices.
“As I said during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the governor and his Office of Consumer Affairs take the issue of price-gouging very seriously and will continue to be vigilant now and in the future,” Administrator Joe Doyle said in the status report.
If a gas station was required to provide restitution, signage had to be posted stating the details.
Conroy said some area stores have already used up their restitution windows, generally one month, but Granny’s and L & G Food Mart run until June 19 because signs may not have been properly posted.
“If consumers purchased gas at those stations in the time period posted, they can go in and collect the difference,” he said. “Reimbursement also depends on the grade of gasoline and the time frame.”
An example is the L & G Food Mart #2 located at 401 N. Madison St.
Conroy said the regular unleaded price was determined to be $3.579 Aug. 28 to Sept. 23 and between Sept. 24 and Oct. 2 it should have been $3.601.
Katrina Young, a cashier at Burger King, noticed the poster at the store when filling up her gas tank. It read that customers who bought gas in the station between Aug. 27 and Sept. 17 may be eligible for a refund, she said.
“I go to all these gas stations every day, but they are not going to give me my money back because I got no receipts,” Young, 35, said.
Only consumers with itemized receipts are eligible for reimbursement, Conroy said, because documentation must specifically state how much gas was purchased.
Patel was not aware of anyone coming to receive reimbursement at his stores with a receipt.
“One person brought a bank statement but we cannot use that because we don’t know if the total was just gas or gas and something else. We have to have a gas receipt to refund them.”
Six other stations in Thomas County are still under investigation, Conroy said. If violations are determined, then the information will be released once the cases are resolved.
There were five reported cases in Grady County; three came to an agreement and the other two were unfounded.
Conroy said the OCA would be updating its Web site, http://consumer.georgia.gov, weekly as new information is available.


LIST OF GAS STATIONS PENALIZED
Granny’s Country Store, 316 Smith Ave., Thomasville - Restitution plus $6,000 fine, which was assessed jointly against this station and L & G Food Mart #2, L & G Food Mart #3 and L & G Food Mart #4
L & G Food Mart #2, 401 North Madison St., Thomasville – Restitution plus $6,000 fine
L & G Food Mart #3, 107 Albany Rd., Thomasville – Restitution plus $6,000 fine
L & G Food Mart #4 (Shell), 1250 U.S. 84 East, Cairo – Restitution plus $6,000 fine
Hud’s Mini Mart #2, 995 U.S. 84 East, Cairo – Restitution plus $4,000 fine, which was assessed jointly against this station and Hud's Mini Mart #3
Hud’s Mini Mart #3, 2499 U.S. 319 South, Thomasville – Restitution plus $4,000 fine
Quick Buys #118, 208 South Broad St., Cairo – Restitution plus $5,000 fine, which was assessed jointly against this station and the Citgo station of Thomasville, listed below
Citgo, North Pinetree and Country Line Road, Thomasville – Restitution plus $5,000 fine
J & P Shop & Stop, 630 West Jackson St., Thomasville – Restitution plus $700 fine
Aden’s Minit Market # 50, Ga. 111, Meigs – Restitution plus $750

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