Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Here are last week’s updates.
Multistate
- Several Attorneys General have enacted protections against price gouging ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Debby in the Southeastern United States. Attorney General Moody of Florida warned Floridians to be weary of price gouging scams and unlicensed contractors, and noted that violators of Florida’s price gouging statute are subject to civil penalties of $1,000 per violation, and a total of $25,000 for multiple violations committed in a single 24-hour period. Attorneys General of Virginia and North Carolina noted the potential impacts of Tropical Storm Debby, and highlighted the protections that Virginia’s Anti-Price Gouging Act and North Carolina’s Anti-Price Gouging Law provide for consumers.
District of Columbia
- Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced that Kenmore Pest Control & Termite Services LLC (Kenmore), a Maryland-based pest control company, will pay $137,000 in penalties and environmental clean-up costs for repeatedly and illegally applying pesticides, which endangered District residents and D.C.’s natural resources. The OAG investigation revealed that Kenmore violated D.C. law by: (1) improperly applying highly toxic pesticides around apartment complexes in Wards 1 and 7; (2) allowing unqualified employees to apply pesticides for years; and (3) misleading D.C. consumers by stating their employees were “fully licensed” and “certified” on their website.
Pennsylvania
- Attorney General Michelle Henry partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation to launch a new complaint form that Pennsylvanians who encounter hardships with airline travel can use. The creation of this consumer complaint form stems from a Memorandum of Understanding between the Office of the Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Transportation, which outlines how the agencies will work together.
New York
- Attorney General Letitia James convened a group of experts to discuss Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) and issued a report on the potential risks and benefits of GAI. GAI, a subset of AI, can create entirely new content such as text, images, and audio in response to a prompt and is broadly accessible to the public. Most notably, the report highlighted how generative AI can assist in streamlining administrative tasks, which would greatly assist healthcare industries and the government. However, some of those in attendance at the convening shared how AI-tools can generate misinformation, privacy concerns for patients, or discriminatory automated decision-making.
Washington
- Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that Greenbrier International, which does business as Dollar Tree, entered into a nationwide, legally binding agreement that would require the company to pay $190,000 to the AGO for further consumer protection enforcement and more thoroughly test children’s products for toxic heavy metals. The settlement comes after tests conducted by Washington State’s Department of Ecology’s testing of bracelets and pencil pouches sold at Dollar Tree stores in 2018, 2019, and 2021 revealed that the products contained illegal levels of lead and cadmium. In some cases, pencil pouches contained four times the state and federal limit for lead and four times the state limit for cadmium.