The Federal Trade Commission and 20 states sued Dollar General on October 26, alleging that shoppers repeatedly paid more at checkout than prices displayed on shelves, labels and advertisements. The lawsuit seeks an injunction and monetary relief; the court has not decided the allegations in the records reviewed here.
What investigators say they bought
The complaint, filed in the Middle District of Tennessee, describes undercover purchases between January 16 and April 1, 2026, in Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Investigators paid by credit card.
The reported results distinguish a wrong price from an overcharge. In Cleveland, the complaint says 13 of 58 items had price discrepancies: eight overcharges and five undercharges, producing a net overcharge of $3.25. In Springfield, Missouri, it reports four overcharges and two undercharges among 59 items, for a $4.07 net overcharge.
For the Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, purchase, the complaint lists four overcharges and two undercharges among 60 items, producing a $2.60 net overcharge. For Baltimore, it lists five overcharges and no undercharges among 59 items, producing a $3.65 net overcharge. These are the complaint's reported purchases, not an independently measured nationwide error rate.
The wider allegation
The plaintiffs say Dollar General received 29,265 complaints categorized as failures to honor marked prices between January 1, 2023, and March 31, 2026. That is a company complaint-category count described in the filing, not a court determination that every complaint was valid.
The complaint argues that inaccurate checkout prices particularly affect the low- and fixed-income households the company serves. It alleges violations of federal and state laws and requests monetary and other relief, including state civil penalties and restitution.
What happens next
The FTC says the case will be decided by the court. Filing a complaint does not establish liability, an awarded refund or a payment timetable. The announcement directs reports of fraud and bad business practices to the FTC's existing ReportFraud service; it does not announce a Dollar General refund program.