Governor Signs Order to Prohibit Price Gouging on at-Home COVID Tests

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an enforcement bid this play aimed astatine preventing terms gouging connected COVID-19 at-home trial kits, which are successful precocious request owed to the omicron variant surge.

The bid mostly prohibits sellers from expanding prices connected the trial kits by much than 10 percent.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a user alert pursuing the governor's signing of the bid and encouraged anyone who has been a unfortunate of price-gouging connected at-home COVID-19 trial kits to record a ailment with his bureau oregon interaction section instrumentality enforcement.

"Californians are doing their portion to face this situation -- whether by caring for loved ones, getting vaccinated, oregon moving connected the beforehand lines - and they shouldn't person to interest astir being cheated portion dealing with the effects of coronavirus," Bonta said.

The bid signed by Newsom prohibits merchantability of at-home COVID-19 trial kits astatine a terms that exceeds, by much than 10 percent, the terms the seller charged for the point connected Dec. 1, 2021.

Sellers who haven't antecedently sold at-home COVID-19 trial kits whitethorn not merchantability them astatine a terms that is greater than 50 percent of what the seller paid for them.

Violation of the bid is simply a misdemeanor punishable by a good of up to $1,000 oregon imprisonment for up to six months, oregon both. Violations would besides represent a usurpation of the Unfair Competition Law, which is taxable to a $2,500 per usurpation civilian penalty.

Price-gouging complaints tin beryllium filed astatine oag.ca.gov/report .