CONSUMER ALERT: Attorney General James Cautions Against Price Gouging of Children’s Medication

“Tripledemic” Inflicting Shortages of Kids’s Painkillers and Fever Reducers 

AG James Encourages Shoppers to Report Extreme Value Will increase  

NEW YORK – New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James at present cautioned shoppers and companies of value gouging of kids’s painkillers and fever reducers as demand will increase for these medicines attributable to this 12 months’s “tripledemic” of COVID-19, RSV, and the flu. The Workplace of the Lawyer Normal (OAG) is conscious of stories of kids’s treatment being offered on-line and in shops at costs two or thrice their retail worth. Lawyer Normal James urges New Yorkers to be on alert for potential value gouging of kids’s painkillers and fever reducers, together with Tylenol, Motrin, and acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin offered beneath different model names, and to report any dramatic value will increase to her workplace. 

“This 12 months’s tripledemic is protecting many children and infants sick at dwelling, and households making an attempt to take care of them are confronting the nationwide scarcity of kids’s Tylenol and different treatment,” stated Lawyer Normal James. “The very last thing any household wants when a baby spikes a fever or is in ache is to be value gouged on the treatment they want. I’m placing profiteers searching for to benefit from this scarcity on discover. If New Yorkers see large value will increase for kids’s treatment, I encourage them to report it to my workplace instantly.” 

New York legislation prohibits retailers from taking unfair benefit of shoppers by promoting items or providers which might be very important to their well being, security, or welfare for an unconscionably extreme value. Because of the nationwide scarcity, OAG advises shoppers to purchase solely as a lot kids’s treatment as they want and to not unnecessarily top off as such panic shopping for might intensify the scarcity and will encourage sellers to have interaction in unlawful value gouging. The OAG additionally reminds shoppers that it isn’t value gouging for retailers to restrict the quantity of treatment they promote to particular person shoppers. 

When reporting value gouging to OAG, shoppers ought to: 

• Report the precise elevated costs, the dates, and locations that they noticed the elevated costs, and the varieties of treatment being offered; and, 
• Present copies of their gross sales receipts and photographs of the marketed costs, if obtainable. 

New Yorkers ought to report potential considerations about value gouging to OAG by filing a complaint online or calling 1-800-771-7755.