• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Florida Attorney General's Office Gets 246 Price-Gouging Reports

Posted on: Friday, 28 October 2005, 15:01 CDT

By Jon Burstein, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Oct. 28--A steady stream of price-gouging complaints for everything from inflated gas prices to jacked-up hotel rates have been filed with the state by those coping in Hurricane Wilma's wake.

The state Attorney General's Office received 246 complaints statewide by Thursday afternoon. Of the complaints, 84 came from Broward County, 68 from Miami-Dade County, 33 from Palm Beach and 61 from the rest of the state.

In addition, Broward sheriff deputies criminally charged a Plantation man Thursday with price gouging, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable up to two months in jail.

David Bercovicz, 23, was arrested as he attempted to sell cases of bottled water for $10 out of a U-Haul trailer parked at 5781 N. University Drive in Tamarac, authorities said. The cases normally cost $4.99, deputies determined.

Bercovicz told deputies he bought the cases near Tampa with the plan to sell the water in South Florida, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Statewide there have been 81 fuel-related complaints, 78 about food/water/ice prices, 22 about generator and chainsaw prices, 19 about hotel rates and 16 about battery prices. As the power gets turned back on for most of the state, complaints are expected to shift to tree removal and building repair.

"It's unconscionable that someone would try to take advantage of people who are suffering," said Attorney General Charlie Crist.

It can also turn out to be expensive for those seeking excess profits. Businesses or individuals breaking the state's price-gouging law could end up paying $1,000 for each customer they exploit and up to $25,000 for multiple violations, Crist said.

The Attorney General's Office cautioned that just because a product's price is marked up after Wilma, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily price gouging. The increased price must be a "gross disparity" from its normal price and not explained by the merchants' increased cost of doing business post-disaster.

For example, Crist said if someone paid an extra five cents per gallon of gas that doesn't necessarily constitute price gouging. But if someone paid 50 cents per gallon, that's clearly price gouging, he said.

The Attorney General's Office initiated 60 price-gouging investigations within the past two years with 13 resulting in consumer protection lawsuits.

-----

To see more of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel -- including its homes, jobs, cars and other classified listings -- or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sun-sentinel.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

UHAL,

Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

More News in this Category