‘Anyone Taking Advantage of Consumers’: Price-gouging Now Focus After Storms Recede
Administration has multiple agencies guarding against taking advantage of struggling Americans
As the Biden administration begins the task of providing relief and assistance to Americans hit by Hurricane Milton in Florida — the second such storm in just weeks — another potential problem has come to the fore: price-gouging.
Beginning with President Biden himself, administration officials are watching to see if companies are taking advantage of Americans desperate in the wake of Milton, which swept across Florida leaving behind torrential rain, wind, flooding and tornado damage.
The administration has already been assisting with relief efforts for Hurricane Helene, which battered the southeastern United States just a couple of weeks ago.
Now the administration doesn’t want unscrupulous businesses to jack up prices on those consumers trying to deal with the aftermath of these major storms.
This will be on the radar for both himself and Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden said Wednesday during a storm-preparation session in Washington DC.
“Finally, as the president mentioned, to any company or individual that might use this crisis to exploit people who are desperate for help through illegal fraud or price gouging — whether it be at the gas pump, the airport, or the hotel counter — know that we are monitoring these behaviors and the situation on the ground very closely and anyone taking advantage of consumers will be held accountable,” Harris said, working alongside Biden at the same session.
The White House is mobilizing across the federal government to guard against price-gouging, according to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“We’re keeping a close eye on prices at the pump, at the airport obviously, and also these hotel counters to just make sure that it doesn’t happen. We tend to see this type of behavior during this time and we want to be very, very clear, it is not okay,” she said. “There’s no time to do that. But certainly when people are evacuating, when people are fearful about what’s — what’s to come, especially with the historic hurricane like Hurricane Milton, we want to make sure that this is not happening.”
Agencies from the Department of Transportation, Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau all are on the job, Jean-Pierre said.
“And so, they’re going to certainly take actions here and to protect consumers. And that is what we want to make sure that we’re doing,” she said. “We’re protecting consumers, we’re protecting Americans. And so that’s our focus.”
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