Did you get gouged? (Laws You Should Know About, Four)

When that big snowstorm was going to hit Wisconsin, did you rush out to get some supplies? A snow shovel, perhaps, or milk and eggs and bread?

Did you bother to see whether the price you paid was the price you should have paid for that stuff? Or did you not know about price gouging?

In Wisconsin, it's illegal for retailers to price-gouge -- defined as selling a "consumer good or service in an emergency area during an emergency period at a price that is more than 15% above the highest price at which the seller sold like consumer goods or services to like customers in the relevant trade area during the 60-day period immediately preceding the emergency declaration."

In short, if there's been an emergency declaration, then in the emergency area prices cannot be more than 15% above the highest price in the two months' prior to that declaration.

Which meant that Wisconsin's governor Jim Doyle essentially froze prices for all of Wisconsin, just prior to Christmas, when he declared every single county an emergency area on December 8, 2009.

I don't know if anyone did price gouge during that blizzard; and it may be that the law didn't apply then because to be enforced the governor has to also certify a period of abnormal economic disruption, but it's something to keep in mind, given that blizzards hit every year. Why should you pay more for your snow blower than you have to?