Price Gouging Complaints Surge Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

In Florida, one seller was offering 15 N95 face masks on Amazon — for $3,799.

In Massachusetts, a convenience store was selling milk for $10 a gallon.

And in Minnesota, a smoke shop was charging $79.99 for 36 rolls of toilet paper.

Across the country, state attorneys general said this week that they had been flooded with complaints of price gouging and profiteering on items like hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and masks that have been in high demand and hard to find on store shelves. Many have also reported a surge in exorbitant price increases on everyday grocery items like chicken, rice and milk.

“This is something, I think, unlike anything we’ve seen in our state,” said Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, whose office has been inundated by more than 1,880 complaints of potentially illegal price increases — far more than those fielded during previous emergencies like a so-called polar vortex last year and a widespread power failure in 2003.

Ms. Nessel recently assigned a team of special agents to help her respond to the complaints.

“Our staff has been running around the clock,” she said. “It’s been really insane.”

One store had raised the price of lentils and rice by 60 percent, according to Ms. Nessel’s office. Another had opened a box of 10 dust masks that sells for $25 and was reselling them in Ziploc bags for $6 to $10 apiece. Consumers, she said, have also complained of unreasonable price increases on baby formula, diapers, toilet paper and beef.

Some businesses could be prosecuted criminally, officials said, although others were backing down after receiving cease-and-desist letters.