Saturday, October 10, 2009
Shawsville gas station ordered to repay customers
The Shawnee Mini Mart in Shawsville charged "unconscionable" prices, the attorney general said.
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Shawnee Mini Mart, a gas station in Shawsville, will reimburse customers and the commonwealth after settling allegations of price gouging from September 2008.
The gas station, under the company name 7 Hills Inc., set gasoline prices at an "unconscionable" level on Sept. 12, 13 and 14, 2008, according to a statement issued Friday from the office of Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims.
Gov. Tim Kaine had declared a state of emergency Sept. 10, 2008, as Hurricane Ike approached the Gulf Coast, and soaring gasoline prices resulted at some stations. The Shawnee settlement is the sixth legal action against such price jumps, Mims said in the statement. The commonwealth's Post-Disaster Anti-Price Gouging Act forbids suppliers of necessary goods such as gasoline from raising prices unreasonably high compared with prices before the emergency.
"It's not our fault at all," 7 Hills Inc. owner Raj Patel, 55, of Shawsville said in an interview Friday. "We don't get the prices from our suppliers on Saturdays and Sundays, so we have to rely on the prices in the newspapers and followed by others.
"This is absolutely one-sided. There is no justice in this," he added.
Shawnee Mini Mart had charged customers $4.87 for regular gasoline, up $1.30, or 36 percent, from the Sept. 9 price. It sold midgrade gasoline for $4.70 and $4.97, and premium for $4.80 and $5.07 in the same three days in September, according to the attorney general's statement.
The gas station will allot $250 for reimbursing customers and will pay Virginia $1,200 for investigative and legal costs. The business also will donate $500 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, the statement said.
As part of the settlement, Shawnee is required to post notice to customers of eligibility for restitution on its front door and on each gas pump. It is also required to credit a refund for credit and debit card customers who bought gas over those three days.
