While states continue to lift their COVID related states of emergency, new price gouging claims are being made and ongoing price gouging litigation continues to wind through the courts. The federal government also now appears more poised than ever to intervene in price gouging issues.
Commerce Clause
Price Gouging Laws and the Dormant Commerce Clause?
During the pandemic, businesses are asking about their potential price gouging liability in states that they do not sell into directly but where their products might end up. At least one federal circuit court addressed this question in examining a Maryland price gouging law that covered pharmaceuticals (outside the emergency context), ultimately striking down the law as a violation of the dormant Commerce Clause in a split decision.
State Liquor Law Tossed: Industry Changes Ahead
By Kelly Landers Hawthorne on
In a decision with major implications for fans of wine, liquor, or free trade, the Supreme Court has affirmed a ruling that struck down a Tennessee law, which imposed certain residency requirements to operate retail liquor stores, as impermissibly violating the Commerce Clause. Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Assn. v. Thomas. Justice Alito, writing for the majority in the 7-to-2 decision, said that the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition in 1933, did not authorize states to discriminate against new residents. Because the law “blatantly favors the state’s residents and has little relationship to public health and safety,” the opinion explains, “it is unconstitutional.”