Utah lawmakers voted to stiffen penalties on retailers who chronically overcharge customers, enacting a law that imposes a $10,000 fine per failed price-accuracy inspection starting with the sixth violation. The law takes effect on May 6.

The legislation was introduced in direct response to a Guardian investigation of pricing practices at Dollar General and Family Dollar, according to an official who oversees the state's price-accuracy inspections. The two chains have been found to post one price on shelves and ring up a higher price at the register. Between 2022 and 2025, Dollar General stores failed more than 4,300 government price-accuracy inspections in 23 states, while Family Dollar stores failed more than 2,100 inspections in 20 states during the same period.

Republican state Rep. Candice Pierucci sponsored the bill and introduced it on the House floor in February. "I just assume they're being honest with the prices listed," Pierucci said. The increased penalties apply to supermarkets, box stores and other retailers in addition to dollar stores.

A Family Dollar store in Provo, a city of 115,000 people and home to Brigham Young University, failed 28 pricing inspections between 2022 and 2025, according to state records. During one inspection visit at that store, an inspector discovered overcharges for 48% of tested items, including baked beans, Ivory soap, frozen pizza and disposable diapers.

After the investigation was published, legislators contacted the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food to ask if there was some way to prevent repeated overcharges, according to Miland Kofford, the state's weights-and-measures program head. Utah has the nation's largest average household size, which makes residents sensitive to rising costs, Kofford said. "With inflation and price of everything going up, big families are trying to budget their money the best they can," he added.

Civil penalties in Utah for repeat offenders previously topped out at $5,000 per failed inspection, and companies tended to pay those fines without complaint, according to Kofford. In March 2025, Family Dollar missed a payment deadline for a failed inspection at the Provo store, and the fine automatically increased. "And all of a sudden, they changed managers down there," he said. Kofford identified $10,000 as the threshold that attracts the attention of company executives.