New Jersey, the FTC and 19 other states say the chain's registers often ring up more than its shelf and ad prices. Dollar General rejects the claims and says it will fight them in court, adding that its goal is "100% accuracy."

Dollar General's registers have "routinely" rung up items for more than the chain's posted and advertised prices, according to a federal lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission and a group of 20 states that includes New Jersey.

Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced the state's part in the case Oct. 27, a day after the FTC and the states filed it in federal court in Tennessee, near the company's headquarters.

"Bait-and-switch pricing hurts New Jersey families who are already struggling just to get by," Davenport said.

Dollar General disputes the case. "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.

The company said its goal is "100% accuracy between shelf and register prices in every store." It said occasional mismatches happen despite its policies, as they do at other retailers, and that it has improved its price checks in recent years.

Dollar General had 190 stores in New Jersey as of Feb. 27, according to its annual report.

The FTC voted 2-0 to bring the case. The agency said the court will decide it.

New Jersey's claim in the lawsuit rests on the state's consumer fraud law. The state says the chain's shelf tags and ads told shoppers what an item would cost, and many items then rang up higher at the register.

New Jersey reached its own pricing settlement with the chain in 2023

The federal complaint lists seven pricing settlements between Dollar General and state officials since 2019, New Jersey's 2023 deal among them, with more than $6 million in penalties paid across the seven.

That November 2023 agreement was filed with the state's Division of Consumer Affairs, not in court. The $1.2 million deal settled the state's allegations that the chain's registers rang up higher than its posted prices. Of that total, $1.18 million was a civil penalty. The state said that the penalty was a record for its Office of Weights and Measures, a unit of the division.

State inspectors checked 58 of the chain's New Jersey stores in November 2022 and February 2023. Registers rang up higher than the posted price more than 2,000 times, according to the state; the largest overcharge on a single item was $5.95.

In the settlement, the state said, the company agreed that within 90 days it would train New Jersey store workers with pricing duties, and that it would audit every New Jersey store at least once a year for three years.

"Dollar General is committed to providing customers with accurate prices on items purchased in our stores, and we are disappointed any time we fail to deliver on this commitment," the company said in a 2023 statement.

Dollar General says the FTC's demands overstate the harm to shoppers

Dollar General logged at least 29,265 complaints from shoppers who said a register price did not match the shelf, the lawsuit says. They came in from all 48 states where the chain has stores, between January 2023 and March 2026.

The suit also cites a complaint from a New Jersey shopper that the company recorded in its own files in October 2024. The shopper said the chain did not honor a flyer's buy-two-get-one-free offer on bags of chips and charged more than the sale price.

The states and the FTC say Dollar General knew about the pricing mismatches from shoppers' complaints and from inspections and did not do enough to stop them.

Store crews are often so small that workers cannot swap out shelf tags in time when prices change, the lawsuit says.

The FTC's own test purchases turned up more than one item ringing up above its advertised price on every trip, and on some trips items that rang up for less, the complaint says. The agency's investigators, posing as ordinary shoppers, made those trips to stores in Maryland, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania from mid-January to April 1, 2026. No New Jersey store was among them, and none of the state inspection results the complaint gives as examples comes from New Jersey.

Dollar General said in an Oct. 26 filing with federal securities regulators that it had cooperated with FTC staff since early February, after the agency sent it a demand for information dated Jan. 30. On Sept. 23, FTC staff sent a draft complaint and a proposed settlement order and sought a large payment, the company said.

Until then, Dollar General said, the agency had shared no findings, had made no settlement demand and had held no settlement talks with the company. It also said the demands rest on "assumptions and methodology the Company believes are unsupported and materially overstate any alleged consumer harm."

"FTC staff also demanded a monetary amount that was untethered to — and orders of magnitude larger than — any realistic assessment of amounts attributable to pricing discrepancies," the company said in its statement. It said it tried for four weeks to settle with FTC staff after the draft complaint arrived. Before the agency sued, it said, it offered a settlement amount of its own and proposed a method it considered more reasonable for estimating what a settlement should be.

In a separate shoppers' lawsuit, the chain already agreed to outside price audits

A Dollar General customer filed a separate case in February 2025, in state Superior Court in Middlesex County, as a class action for shoppers nationwide. A judge gave the settlement final approval March 19, 2026.

The company denied any wrongdoing and said it settled to avoid the cost and burden of more litigation, according to the settlement agreement.

For two years starting June 1, 2025, the company agreed to use an outside firm for pricing audits and to set aside staff hours each Tuesday for changing shelf prices. It also agreed to give district managers time for price checks during store visits and to assign an employee to track weights and measures inspection reports on pricing, the agreement says.

The settlement set aside $8.5 million for shoppers' claims, the agreement says, and the deadline to file passed April 13, according to the settlement website. Neither the FTC nor any state was a party to that case.

Shoppers can report a wrong price while the case moves ahead

The federal lawsuit is still pending in Tennessee. The FTC and the states are asking the court for an order barring the pricing practices they describe, along with civil penalties and money back for customers, according to the complaint.

"Although we respect the FTC's role in protecting American consumers and the State representatives' role in protecting the citizens of their respective states, we will defend this litigation vigorously," Dollar General said.

Shoppers who believe a business has broken New Jersey's consumer fraud or weights and measures laws can file a complaint online with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, according to the division. They can also call 1-800-242-5846 to get a complaint form by mail.

The FTC also takes consumer reports through its fraud-reporting website, the agency said.

When a price does not match at the register, Dollar General says, its employees are "instructed, empowered, and expected to make things right for the customer."

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Sources

Braun v. Dolgencorp, LLC, Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Middlesex County, class action settlement agreement and release (2025); notice of class action settlement (2025); settlement website (accessed Nov. 3, 2026)

CBS News, "Lawsuit filed by FTC and 20 states accuses Dollar General of deceptive pricing" (Oct. 27, 2026)

Dollar General Corporation, Form 10-K annual report for the fiscal year ended Jan. 30, 2026 (March 20, 2026)

Dollar General Corporation, Form 8-K current report on the FTC investigation (Oct. 26, 2026)

Fazelpoor, Matthew, NJBIZ, "NJ reaches $1.2M settlement with Dollar General over deceptive pricing" (Nov. 29, 2023)

Federal Trade Commission et al. v. Dollar General Corporation, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, complaint (Oct. 26, 2026)

Federal Trade Commission, "FTC and State Partners Sue Dollar General for Charging Consumers More than Advertised for Many Products" (Oct. 26, 2026)

New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, Spanish-language release on the Dollar General settlement (Nov. 27, 2023)

New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and Division of Consumer Affairs, "AG Platkin: New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs Reaches Settlement with Dollar General Over Allegations of Pricing Violations" (Nov. 28, 2023)

New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, "New Jersey Sues Dollar General with FTC and Bipartisan State Coalition for Exacerbating the Affordability Crisis with Bait and Switch Pricing Practices" (Oct. 27, 2026)

Revell, Eric, FOX Business, "Dollar General sued by FTC and 20 states, accused of overcharging customers" (Oct. 29, 2026)

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