Consumers should be aware\u2014and retailers are on notice\u2014that it is illegal to engage in price gouging following a state of emergency. <\/p>\n
This comes soon after Gov. Ralph DLG Torres issued a declaration of Significant Emergency on Jan. 29, 2020, and renewed on Feb. 28, 2020, as a result over the growing concerns of the coronavirus disease, or COVID-19.<\/p>\n
The Consumer Protection Act makes it unlawful for businesses to engage in price gouging. Price gouging occurs when a business increases prices based solely on a shortage of goods caused by a natural disaster or any other emergency. The Office of the Attorney General will prosecute, both criminally and civilly, any business that engages in price gouging. <\/p>\n
The governor declared a price freeze pursuant to the Consumer Disaster Price Freeze Act on March 5, 2020, which will be in effect until he rescinds all declarations of emergency, disaster or price freeze. <\/p>\n
It is illegal for any person or business to raise the price of any of the affected items while a price freeze is in effect. A violation of the Consumer Disaster Price Freeze Act is punishable by a $10,000 fine and one year of imprisonment for each violation. <\/p>\n
If you have information about price gouging, you should submit a written complaint to the Office of the Attorney General, along with copies of all receipts, invoices, or other documents associated with the complained-of transaction. Make sure to keep your original documents for your own records. <\/p>\n
Complaint forms may be obtained at www.cnmioag.org under the Consumer Protection section or in person at the Civil Division on Capital Hill from 7:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday, or via email by sending a request to consumer_counsel@cnmioag.org. Complaints should be hand-delivered to the Civil Division on Capital Hill or submitted via email. (OAG)<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
PRICE FREEZE<\/strong><\/p>\n The price of the following items are frozen: <\/p>\n 1. Gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, natural gas, and all other chemical fuels, whether in gaseous, liquid, or solid form;<\/p>\n 2. All foods and foodstuffs, including water, bottled water, beverages, and ice;<\/p>\n 3. All clothing; <\/p>\n 4. Flashlights, lamps, lanterns, candles, light bulbs, and other means of illumination; <\/p>\n 5. Generators, cables, wires, electrical batteries of every sort, and similar equipment for the generation and\/or transmission of electrical power; <\/p>\n 6. All appliances used in the storage and\/or preparation of food, including, but not limited to, stoves, barbecue grilles, ovens, refrigerators, and coolers; <\/p>\n 7. Tools typically used for construction, ground clearing, or home repairs, whether electrically powered, chemically powered, or manual, including, but not limited to, saws, machetes, hammers, drills, shovels, rakes, and brooms; <\/p>\n 8. All bedding items, including pillows, futons and blankets; <\/p>\n 9. All medicines, medical equipment, and personal protective equipment, including but not limited to masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers; <\/p>\n 10. All housing rentals including apartments and condominiums. (OAG)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Consumers should be aware\u2014and retailers are on notice\u2014that it is illegal to engage in price…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-318804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-oag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}