Well, attorney General Josh Stein
is with us taking questions about
the cyber hacker, Colonial Pipeline
and about price gouging as well.
We just heard about how Colonial
pipeline was restarting things as
of 5:00 o'clock this afternoon,
so it's in process how things should
be back to normal in a few days.
So we this text. Question is,
what do you think about the restart
that was just announced and how things
will change over the next few days?
Yeah, I it's great news that
Colonial pipeline is able to resume
flow of gas through its pipeline.
It's important to remember
why we're in this situation.
It was the cybercriminals who held
not only colonial pipeline for ransom.
They essentially held all of us for ransom
because they're disrupting our lives.
The other thing that has driven
the shortage is frankly,
people engaged in panic buying
an what we ask folks to do.
Is don't succumb to the panic
just remember what it was like
a year ago with toilet paper.
People were out there buying a years
worth of supply of toilet paper and
then the next thing you knew you
couldn't find any on the shelves anywhere.
So if you don't need to fill
up your gas tank right now,
don't do it if you don't need to drive,
don't do it.
Leave the gas at the gas stations
for those for whom they need it
in order to get to work or some
other important reason.
Don't for don't go unnecessarily.
It does have a ripple effect.
Absolutely, alright, so this question
is how do consumers or do consumers get
their money back from price gouging?
If they are a victim of price gouging
and we bring a case and we win in court,
we can get refunds for consumers,
and we've done that since
I've been attorney General,
I've brought 9 lawsuits against 25
defendants and we've resolved them
against about 18 of those 25 so far.
When settlements and awards totaling
about 900 and $75,000 the largest
was a single case 200 and $74,000,
and as much of that money that we can.
To go back to the harmed consumers,
we try to make that
happen. OK, so this person
is asking about Craigslist.
They said I've seen Craigslist
posts offering gasoline and
what appears to be plastic bags
for around $18.00 a gallon.
Since it's not a business,
does the price gouging law still apply?
First things first,
do not put gasoline in a plastic bag.
That is just a terrible, terrible idea.
The law that we have against price gouging
in North Carolina applies to a seller in.
A seller doesn't need to have a commercial
business license to be a seller.
Any person who put something
for sale is subject to our law.
Even an individual on Craigslist, right?
This person is asking
how long does it take for gas
prices to return back to normal?
We don't know for sure.
It's just great news that Colonial
pipeline is able to restart things.
Now we know it will be a few
days to work through the kinks,
but the gas station should have all that
they need and just a couple of few days.
That's why if you don't need it now,
just Please wait,
let others who desperately do
need gas go in line ahead of you.
Let's not be subject to panic.
Buying in terms of when
prices will bounce back down.
We don't know in part because
this is the time of year when gas
prices traditionally do go up.
A little bit because of
summer driving schedules,
this
person says how much does a
service station have to charge
a gallon to be price gouging?
I paid 399 a gallon for premium
in Greensboro this morning.
There is no set price.
Part of it will depend on what did
they normally charge for gas just
a few days ago and was there any
reason why their price increased
between a few days ago and today?
And that's why we have
to do the investigations.
But for us to do it,
we need to hear from you.
So if you are concerned about
a price that you saw at the
pump at some gas station,
please file a complaint with
my office and then you just as
a interest to your viewers.
The city with the most complaints,
price gouging complaints that we've
received so far of the 400 is Greensboro,
about 10% of all the complaints
so far coming in from Greensboro.
Interesting, OK,
an when you make
a complaint, you need to give
some specific information.
I just want to go over that one more time,
because if you do think that there was
price gouging involved when you went,
we want you to be able to make
that complaint and the details
they need to give you are.
Certainly the name of the business,
the address of the business,
the price that you paid,
or the price that you saw
represented at the pump.
And if you know what the price had been,
but you may not know
that, and that's fine.
This person says is an increase of
$0.40 over Sunday through Tuesday
with no new gas delivered in that
period constitute price gouging.
It can, we just have to
look into it to make that
determination again.
I mean, you need definitely that
evidence from that business that
says when they bought the gas and
when they turned around that price.
Exactly OK, and that takes some time folks,
but that doesn't mean that
you shouldn't make that.
You shouldn't make that complaint.
Thank you so much for your time.
We so appreciate it.
Busy man as he is dealing with more
than 400 price gouging complaints
in the last 24 hours or so.
Alright, if you missed any of this,
we're going to put all of this
on our website for you under
the two wants to know section.