HARTFORD, Conn. — The Federal Trade Commission and 20 states, including Connecticut, sued Dollar General Corp. on Monday, accusing the discount retailer of routinely charging customers more at the register than the prices shown on shelves, price tags and advertisements.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong's office said the complaint alleges that Dollar General has for years mislabeled prices, overcharged shoppers and failed to fix the problem despite widespread knowledge of it inside the company. The practice has cost consumers millions of dollars, the FTC and the states allege.

According to the complaint, thousands of Dollar General stores have overcharged shoppers without adequate safeguards to prevent it, and the company received tens of thousands of complaints from customers across the country who said it did not honor the advertised price. Despite those complaints, the company has not put in place policies to adequately address the problem, the complaint says.

"Dollar General knew it was overcharging customers and failed to do anything about it," Tong said.

The FTC and the states allege the practices violate the FTC Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. The claims are allegations and have not been proven in court. The attorney general's office did not include a response from Dollar General.

The other states in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin. No other New England state is listed as a party.

This brief was drafted by AI from a public agency or political press release and published by The New England Signal. Why we use AI for stories like this one.