LT. GOVERNOR PAT QUINN CALLS ON GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO PROTECT SHOPPERS, END "SCANNER SCAMMING"

(CHICAGO) - Today, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn joined crowds of holiday shoppers on State Street as he called for the General Assembly to pass the Retail Consumer Protection Act and keep holiday shoppers from getting scammed by price scanner "mistakes."

 

            "At this holiday season, busy shoppers may not notice that the price they actually paid at the cash register was different - and higher - than the price on the tag," Quinn said. "Illinois shoppers should not have to go through the checkout line wondering whether the store's price scanners are on the square."

 

            To protect consumers from scanner overcharging, Quinn is urging the General Assembly to pass the Retail Consumer Protection Act, a bill that would include stiff fines and store-by-store accountability to end overcharging at the checkout counter by big retailers.

 

            "Again and again, researchers have found that these price scanners are notoriously inaccurate," Quinn said. One study, by the University of Illinois at Chicago, tested 78 Wal-Mart stores in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan and found that 85 percent of them demonstrated errors in pricing that exceeded federally accepted standards for large retail establishments.  The stores' checkout scanners rang up the wrong price 6.4 percent of the time - about once in every 14 transactions.

 

            A 2004 study by the Chicago Department of Consumer Services found price-scanner errors at 78 percent of city drugstores, with overcharges ranging from a few cents to $35.

 

            Nationwide, consumer advocates say, retail customers pay billions every year in overcharges caused by incorrect shelf prices, confusing signs, and computer errors. "Consumers are being nickel-and-dimed, and they may not even know it," Quinn said.  "The General Assembly needs to blow the whistle on this scanner scamming."

 

            Modeled on a California court settlement, the Retail Consumer Protection Act would require every store to assign one employee to verify that shelf and checkout prices match. If a customer is overcharged and alerts store management, the store would pay the customer up to $3 per item.  The State of Illinois would set up a price-scanner overcharge hotline, and that number would be posted at checkout counters and printed on all receipts.  Finally, the state would be empowered to levy fines of up to $5,000 per price-scanner overcharge incident.

 

            "A toll-free hotline would enable any victimized Illinois consumer to report these scams and gain satisfaction," Quinn said.  "If retail employees are aware of these practices, they could call the hotline anonymously and protect their customers. "

 

            For more information on Quinn's efforts to protect Illinois consumers, visit www.StandingUpForIllinois.org.