FTC and 20 states sue Dollar General, saying it overcharged its poorest customers by millions

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, accuses the company of “long-running deceptive pricing practices.” Customers pick out items at one price, then get hit with a higher bill at checkout. Thousands of Dollar General stores have “taken advantage of vulnerable shoppers by extracting millions of dollars in unlawful overcharges,” the complaint states. Between 2019 and March 2026, the pricing discrepancies generated nearly 30,000 consumer complaints to the company, according to the lawsuit .

“Dollar General has betrayed the trust of millions of American consumers and imposed significant financial harm on communities and consumers who are already struggling to make their paychecks last,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement .

The states joining the suit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin. Dollar General shares fell about 4% after the FTC announced the lawsuit.

Dollar General disputes the claims. “The lawsuit filed today by the Federal Trade Commission and several states suggests that we have abandoned our mission and willfully disregarded the affordability needs of our customers. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the company said in a statement .

“Our goal is 100% accuracy between shelf and register prices in every store,” the statement continued. It added that “occasional price discrepancies can occur,” and that when they do, store employees are expected to make things right for the customer. The company said it had cooperated with the FTC’s investigation since early February and called the agency’s settlement demand far out of proportion to any realistic estimate of overcharges. It said it would “defend this litigation vigorously.”

The FTC also alleges that company leaders knew how widespread the problem was but failed to fix it. Between 2019 and 2026, Dollar General entered into seven settlements in six states over inaccurate pricing and paid about $6 million in penalties, according to the complaint .

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued the chain in November 2022 after county auditors found shelf prices that didn’t match the register, and he later secured a $1 million settlement. New Jersey reached a $1.2 million settlement in 2023. Wisconsin, Vermont, and Colorado have also settled with the company, and Pennsylvania reached a $1.55 million settlement last December after finding Dollar General stores failed more than 40% of the state’s price-accuracy inspections between 2019 and 2023.

Marc Dann, a former Ohio attorney general whose law firm has filed multiple class action lawsuits against the company over mislabeled prices, tells Fortune he’s seen a “consistent pattern” of overcharging.