The Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs is following up on violation notices it sent to V.I. businesses who did not submit price lists to the department during the 2017 Hurricane Season, DLCA Commissioner Devin Carrington told senators Wednesday.
Carrington appeared before the Legislature’s Committee on Workforce Development, Consumer Affairs and Culture to update members on efforts to hold non-compliant businesses accountable and encourage compliance ahead of the 2018 hurricane season.
The territory’s Emergency and Major Disasters Act instructs the DLCA Commissioner to issue a price freeze on survival goods – including dry goods, batteries, tarpaulin, and plywood – following a hurricane. But in order for the price-freeze to work, self-enforced procedures that are part of the law have to be followed by businesses before the storm.
Businesses that sell disaster survival goods and services are mandated by the DLCA to submit monthly price lists for those items during every storm season. At a hearing in January, Carrington told senators that despite a written reminder from the department every year, few do.
Without the price lists, it becomes more difficult for the DLCA to respond to complaints of price-gouging, which are common after natural disasters.
Carrington said Wednesday 105 notices of violation were sent out after Hurricanes Irma and Maria to businesses that had not submitted their price lists. 65 of those notices were sent to businesses in the St. Thomas-St. John district; 40 were sent out in the St. Croix districts. The businesses that received the violation notices include supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations, hardware stores, laundromats and convenience stores, as well as professional contractors such as plumbers, electricians and construction contractors.
“The department has met with and continues to meet with violators and is in the process of coming to settlement agreements on violations,” Carrington said. “Settlement provisions include the requirement that those licensees comply with reporting requirements during the hurricane season past and upcoming.”
Not all businesses who received notices for not submitting their price lists were engaged in price-gouging, defined as raising prices to unnatural or exploitive levels in an emergency, but the DLCA has dealt with a few price-gouging cases since 2017’s hurricanes.
According to Carrington, the department settled a case in which Pueblo Supermarkets on St. Thomas and St. Croix charged more than the company’s submitted price for batteries. He added that the department is in the process of revoking the license of a charter boat company that conducted business outside the scope of its license and charged “excessive prices” to evacuate residents from St. Thomas and St. John to St. Croix and Puerto Rico after Hurricane Irma.
In addition, the department has recently collected fines from K-mart, in the amount of $15,000, and Plaza Extra, in the amount $1,650, for price labelling violations, Carrington said.
Carrington told senators that the DLCA has also continued to address general consumer complaints in the hurricanes’ aftermath. Between October 2017 and April 2018, 210 consumer complaints have been filed in the St. Croix district, and 117 cases have been filed in the St. Thomas-St. John district. The 66 cases that have been closed on St. Croix have resulted in consumer restitution of $900, while the 88 that have been closed on St. Thomas-St. John have amounted to more than $55,000 in restitution due in large part to a settled case involving deceptive practices by a villa rental company.
Present at Wednesday’s hearing were Sens. Janelle Sarauw, Brian Smith, Myron Jackson, Jean Forde and Positive Nelson.
