Thursday, January 28, 2021
Businesses regularly engage in promotional pricing and discounts as a sales strategy to attract customers. However, what happens if a business enacted a promotional price right before the pandemic struck and price gouging laws were triggered? Are those businesses stuck with those promotional prices until states of emergency come to an end and price gouging laws are turned off? Some state price gouging laws explicitly provide an exception for promotional or discount pricing. And while other states are silent on the issue, that doesn’t mean businesses are without a defense.
Some state price gouging laws specifically address promotional pricing. Mississippi’s price gouging law, for example, includes a provision providing that “[t]he prices ordinarily charged for comparable goods or services in the same market area do not include temporarily discounted goods or services.” Miss. Code Ann. § 75-24-25. Rhode Island’s price gouging law similarly addresses promotional pricing, “the average price calculation during said thirty-day (30) period shall not include discounted prices set and offered as a result of bona fide manufacturer’s or supplier’s limited discounts or rebates.” R.I. Gen. Laws § 6-13-21(b)(1). While Virginia’s price gouging law considers “the price charged by the supplier for the same or similar goods or services during the 10 days immediately prior to the time of disaster, provided that, with respect to any supplier who was offering a good or service at a reduced price immediately prior to the time of disaster, the price at which the supplier