The Daily Signal - When Winter Hits, So Do Price Gouging Warnings: What Virginia Law Really Allows | Scott Goodman

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Virginia’s recent winter storm brought with it the usual state of emergency announcements along with “the inevitable swooping in” of some politicians going “after anyone who’s price gouging.” Price gouging laws basically mean things like “batteries,” “tree removal services,” food and water can’t be sold at “unconscionably higher” prices than they were “10 days prior to the storm,” explains Scott Goodman, a defense attorney at The Goodman Law Firm in Charlottesville, Virginia. “The business or the supplier that can open its books and show that this is what it costs them to get the water [for example] and that the percentage of the profit that they’re adding on top of that when they sell it to a customer is basically the same as it was prior to the state of emergency, that would again, speak to the fact that they’re not price gouging. They’re simply passing along a higher cost that they have to the customer.” Follow us on Instagram for EXCLUSIVE bonus content and the chance to be featured in our episodes: https://www.instagram.com/problematicwomen/   Connect with our hosts on socials!   Elise McCue X: https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=EliseMcCue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elisemccueofficial/   Virginia Allen: X: https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=Virginia_Allen5 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virginiaallenofficial/   Check out Top News in 10, hosted by The Daily Signal’s Tony Kinnett: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjMHBev3NsoUpc2Pzfk0n89cXWBqQltHY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Winter storm comes the inevitable announcement of states of emergency across the country in Virginia, no different. And one of the things that are triggered when Virginia declares a state of emergency is the inevitable swooping in of a politician to say, I'm going to go after anyone who's price gouging. Joining us is Scott Goodman, one of the great defense attorneys in Virginia of the Goodman law firm. and you can find them at seville lawyer.com. Scott, thank you for taking a little time out with us. How are you doing, sir? Yeah, pretty good.

Is it back in from, you know, backbreaking shoveling this morning, but Beano's not a pretty good job. Isn't it ice breaking shoveling? Because if your yard's anything like mine, you stand on the snow for a few seconds until that first crust breaks and then you come down about three inches. Yeah, you got to stare at it.

Hopefully it breaks up, right? Yeah. But, you know, hopefully. you didn't overdue there, and I appreciate you taking some time out with this. And inevitably, there was Attorney General Jay Jones, who we all are still stinging from the idea of what he said about political opponents, thinking about him going out with his minions from the Attorney General's office looking for price gouging. And every year, I feel this way, even during the Yon administration, I wondered. I said, is there really such a thing as price gouging?

in Virginia, or is this just low-hanging political fruit giving somebody an opportunity to say, I'm going to go after you, mysterious lawbreaker? Well, that's for sure. I mean, there's definitely politicians grandstanding, and then you can go over to Price Gouging, so you have two evils there. So there is such a thing as Price Gouging. And, of course, like you said, it has to come after a state of emergency has been declared, which it has been now in Virginia. And so that brings the law into effect.

And basically it means that you can't have things that are necessary for people to operate in a storm. You know, batteries, food, water, tree removal services, hotels, and so forth. And have those prices be unconscionably higher than the prices were in the 10 days prior to the storm. So, of course, it is difficult to be able to make that case in some. situations because it could cost stores more money to have things like water, bottle of water, and other materials brought in during a storm. So that may cause them to raise prices. But it's, in certain other things like hotel rooms, those things are fairly fixed. And you can see that, you know, with people having power out, they often have to go to hotels in order to have a roof

over their head and be able to live with their family, their children. And so if it's shown that a hotel as jacked up prices $100 over what that same room was selling for a previous year or the previous 10 days in a comparable period. That's price gouging. That would be price gouging, taking advantage of people. Now, I saw something, and you bring up hotel rooms. We just recently were at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and we stated at this wonderful place called the D down on Fremont Street. And I happen to because I'm one of those guys. I read the little sign on the back of the hotel room door because I believe that's where the rate is set.

And the rate for that room was $14,59 a night, which number one tells me that every time I book the room for $49 a night, they're taking a huge tax write off on what they would normally give as the rate. and then beyond that, if there was an emergency, they could say, the advertised rate is $14,000 a night. Do you get some of that in pricing because people know? That hotel would really have to open its books and show that they really did charge $14,000 for that room. Somebody. Over the past period of time.

So I don't think that would be very easy for them to be able to do. So price gouging can be pretty apparent on, up on its face when you see certain things like that happened, rates going up, prices going up that are way beyond what the store was charging in the 10 days prior to the state of emergency. Well, so as a defense attorney, and let's say I run a bodega, and in my bodega, it's become very hard to get bottled water. And I'll even pull on something non-winter related, the Dorato of a few years ago,

where there were parts of Virginia. without electricity for a month. And so if it was hard for people to get water in and therefore their supplier raised the costs as well, I guess it becomes a matter of finding a defense attorney to plead the case if the attorney general came after you? I think so. And even without a lawyer,

I think the business or the supplier that can open its books and show that this is what it cost them to get the water. and that the percentage of the profit that they're adding on top of that when they sell it to a customer is basically the same as it was prior to the state of emergency. That would, again, speak to the fact that they're not price gouging. And it's simply they're passing along a higher cost that they have to the customer. Again, if it can be shown that it's not costing them anymore and they've simply doubled the price just to take advantage of a state of emergency or the state, a state where people are in desperate need for water, then that would be different. Nobody wants to be priced gouged and people don't want to be taken advantage of.

And so there's a fine line. And there is a role for government to play if you have businesses taking advantage of people and where it's very clear that that has gone on. Are there a library of cases where this has happened, Scott, in Virginia, where, you know, that we've caught a lot of people under, you know, regardless of the Attorney General at the time, do we have a lot of case law or is this a rare instance that somebody actually gets tabbed for this? It is rare.

There's not a whole lot of case law because usually, as I say, it's pretty apparent when it's taking place and when a business gets caught, things are negotiated between the Attorney General's office and then there's a fine that often is imposed and their rebates. if they can identify customers that have been overcharged, businesses order to pay back or to rebate some of the money, refund some of the money before it actually goes to litigation. It's one of those things where it's pretty clear whether somebody's guilty of doing it or not.

Some businesses, they try to do it and they won't get caught. And so some things don't get detected because there aren't complaints, but there is that consumer hotline that is out there for people to call if they see or if they feel like there has been price gouging if they've been victims of it. And then the investigation will go on. And usually, the vast majority of cases, there is a compromise.

There's an agreement worked out before it actually goes to court. So there are not a whole lot of cases. Is one of those, you mentioned, some of the services that can come to bear in weather like this, roadside assistance, tree service, those sorts of things, is consideration, given for the fact that those become harder to do in these kind of conditions?

Do the AGs do that usually? Absolutely. I mean, if obviously if you're working around trees, it's much more dangerous what you have to do in icy conditions and bad weather conditions. And so you certainly would charge more because of the danger, the risk to the employees, and so forth. So that would be a pretty hard case to make. Roadside assistance, again, the same thing.

It's harder to get people to come out. People are at risk when they come out and they get near these ditches and they endanger their own equipment. And so it would certainly cost more. So it's understandable that that type of service, those services are going to cost more in a storm. And again, a service provider, a business can justify it, I think, if they can show what the risk is and what the harm is and the extra expense and liability that they are taking on if they come out in weather like this. Now, I know in years past, even Attorney General Miaris has mentioned, and certainly prior to that, Mark Herring had, you know, during these states of emergency, had announced that this was the case. It seemed like Jay Jones was pretty quick after Governor Spanberger's emergency announcement to get out and say, we're coming after any price gougers. Did that surprise you? The enthusiasm that he showed? No, it doesn't surprise me that he would do it. You know, the philosophy that he comes to the office with is not a very business-friendly philosophy anyway.

So it did not surprise me. But there is some value in officials making it clear and coming out and announcing and publicizing that there is an anti-gouging statute on the books just as a deterrent to people who would try to take advantage of their neighbors and the other members of their community who are. in trouble and in need of certain things because of the bad weather. And so it is somewhat valuable to have it publicized that the law is there just to stop people from even who may have the idea to do it from taking advantage of, again, there are other fellow members of their community who are in need. Scott Goodman is on with us from the Goodman law firm. It is Seavill Lawyer.com. Scott talking about this anti-price gouging. And it's been around for a while. Talk about the Is the law in Virginia narrowly focused so somebody couldn't turn around and say, hey, you really should be doing this for free because we're in a crisis.

We watch some of this during COVID. People were, you know, making free masks for one another and people were complaining about businesses that were charging for masks. Is there a peril of going to the point where if a nonprofit does something for free, then somebody who charges? for it could wind up on the wrong side of an anti-gouging law simply for charging what they always do in a crisis? Well, there might be some politicians who might be trying to punish businesses that try to charge for services that other people are doing for free, but a business is not obligated. You're not obligated.

You're not required to offer your service for free, even though sometimes it's a nice thing to do. And I'm sure that many of these businesses that are criticized and accused of price gouging, they've done things for people for free. That part doesn't get publicized. A lot of these, whether it's tree removal or whether it's shoveling driveways or snow plows and so forth, there are many, many people, and it's not well publicized that do things for free, for elderly people, for people that are shut in. And there are a lot of things that people do out of the goodness of their heart because they want to help other people and they have the means to be able to do that. So we don't really hear much about that. We always hear about the one guy or the

two people that supposedly are accused of engaging in price gouging. No, no one is required to offer their service that they have as part of their business for free. But plenty of people, and I think most people probably do it. Oh, sure. Nobody wants to beat their chest and come out and say, look what a wonderful person I am, look what I've done for free. That's not something that people really do either, because that's drawing attention to yourself

or something that you think people would want to do anyway to help their fellow man. So there are a lot of things that go on, probably a lot more free service and a lot of favors done for people who are in need than there is price gouging going on. But, of course, the politicians don't want to, you know, highlight those good Samaritans that are doing things like that. But plenty of it is going on, even as we speak right now. Right, no, without question. You just can't pad your arrest record for that yet. Scott Goodman. Thank you. Not yet anyway. I'm sure there are people who would make the case saying,

are you qualified to do that service? Do you have a license in Virginia? Oh, boy. Yeah, the license. Right. Yes. Well, Scott, thank you very much for taking a little time out and giving us some look inside the anti-gouging law. Could it be better? Last question in your mind. So it isn't necessarily just a punching bag for a politician when there's a storm approaching? It's hard to say. There's enough leeway in there. There's enough wiggle room in the law that anyone who is operating in good faith and can justify what they're doing. And of course, they are entitled to make a profit. If they're in a business, there's enough leeway in the law,

as it is now, that can take into account the various things that people have to do and are entitled to do without having the heavy foot of government on their neck. Well, I was just asked from the control room, how long has Virginia's anti-price gouging statutes been around and were there rampant cases beforehand? Now, you've only been doing law for 45 years, Scott. You must have started when you were 10. But what is the history of the anti-couching law?

It's at least 20 years. It's at least 20 years that they've had it. it's been a good number of years. And there's a history, and it's not something that's brand new. Was there rampant cases of price gouging beforehand? Yeah, there were not so many rampant cases, but there were definitely instances of price gouging where people were taking advantage of the situation

and really jacking up their prices way beyond what would be reasonable. So the word is unconscionable, unconscionable increases. And most people can know that when they see it. They know it when they see it. You know it when you see it. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you do. And never let a crisis get past a politician. If we could only get them to play goalie for the Washington Capitals, we'd be doing something.

Scott, I appreciate it, as always, sir. And I hope your sidewalks are nice and clear. Back outside. Thank you so much. Have a good day.