The Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association joins a coalition of statewide businesses in urging Gov. Tom Wolf to sign Senate Bill 1172 – pro-consumer legislation that would simplify the state’s Price Gouging Law and establish clear measures for price controls during emergencies.
The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Randy Vulakovich (R-38) has received overwhelming bipartisan
support from both chambers as it was sent to the governor’s desk on Monday.
“The Price Gouging Act became law 12 years ago and needs to be updated to eliminate unintended
consequences from a heroin and opioid declaration, address the length of declarations, and clarify the
exposure to the sellers of consumer goods during a state of emergency,” PFMA President & CEO Alex
Baloga said. “On behalf of our many member organizations and their customers who would be impacted
by this positive change, we recommend the governor take swift action in signing this important legislation into law.”
In addition, the measure:
- Reduces a 20 percent price increase standard to a 10 percent threshold, adding significant insulation from excessive price increases and making it easier for the state Attorney General to prosecute offenders on behalf of our consumers.
- Removes a vague, undefined and overly complicated “average price” as the benchmark price and replacing it with the clear standard of the “price immediately before” the emergency.
- Allowing retailers to respond to normal market fluctuations that are independent of an emergency. This provides an incentive to sellers to provide products to areas under an emergency by allowing them to sell at a price that is comparable to areas that are not affected.
PFMA would like to thank its coalition partners and elected officials and staff for their hard work on this
legislation, in particular sponsor Sen. Vulakovich, state Rep. Steve Barrar (R-160), state Rep. Chris
Sainato (D-9), and leadership in the House of Representatives and the State Senate.
