FTC and 20 States Sue Dollar General Over Checkout Price Discrepancies

Key Facts

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 20 states sued Dollar General, accusing it of charging prices at checkout that were higher than those shown on shelves, price tags and advertisements. The commission said in a statement that the alleged practices continued for years and cost consumers millions of dollars. The complaint says thousands of the company’s stores overcharged shoppers, and that customers paid more than they had been told. The commission added that the company received tens of thousands of consumer complaints nationwide about failing to honor advertised prices. The commission’s director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection described the impact as “significant financial harm” to communities and consumers struggling to make their paychecks last.

The plaintiffs say the price discrepancies were not isolated errors, but a recurring practice across a wide store network. The complaint alleges that the company failed to address the problem despite knowing about it and receiving customer complaints, and that the allegations concern prices at checkout that were higher than the advertised price of a product. The FTC and the states say these practices violate the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and state laws. The filing of the lawsuit does not establish that the allegations are true; the commission said the court will decide the case. The case therefore centers on how widespread the price discrepancies were and whether the company took adequate steps to address them.

Dollar General operates more than 21,000 stores in the United States and markets itself as a low-price option against discount and big-box retailers, according to the commission. That reach puts the pricing allegations in the context of a network serving shoppers seeking lower prices, while a commission official said the financial impact affected communities and families struggling to stretch their income. The complaint presents the allegations as a consumer-protection case involving many locations, rather than an individual dispute over the price of one product. The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction, monetary judgment, civil penalties and other forms of relief. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

The federal lawsuit follows an earlier case in Ohio, which said the state sued Dollar General in November 2022. That case ended in 2023 with a $1 million settlement that included steps to address price discrepancies, according to the state attorney general. The settlement required district managers to conduct random price checks every 45 days. It also required employees to adjust the checkout price to the shelf price if a customer reported a discrepancy, and to correct the shelf tag within 24 hours. The agreement provides an example of earlier regulatory measures targeting the same problem in the state.

Ohio said tests it conducted at 20 company stores in Butler County in 2022 recorded error rates ranging from 16.7% to 88.2%. State rules allowed an error rate of up to 2%, according to the attorney general’s statement. In its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2026, Dollar General reported a 5.2% increase in net sales to $11.3 billion compared with the same period a year earlier. Same-store sales also rose 3.5% year over year. The company raised its fiscal 2026 outlook to same-store sales growth of between 2.5% and 2.9%, and diluted earnings per share of between $7.80 and $8.00.

Dollar General shares closed at $132.69 on October 23, after ending the previous session at $139.11, and stood at $132.12 on October 21, according to EL7 market data. Data displayed on October 26 showed a share price of $127.22, down 4.12%, according to Investing.com. These figures do not attribute the stock’s movement solely to the lawsuit. On the economic calendar, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index was scheduled for release on October 27 at 10 a.m. Eastern time, according to a schedule published before the release. The Federal Open Market Committee meeting was also scheduled for October 27 and 28.