Family Dollar to pay $63M settlement after Utah, FTC allege company overcharged customers

SALT LAKE CITY — Family Dollar will pay a $63 million settlement to resolve allegations that the company charged customers more at the register than its advertised prices on the shelves, price tags and advertisements.

Utah — along with Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin — joined the Federal Trade Commission in filing a complaint against the dollar store giant.

"When money is tight, every dollar matters. Utah families shouldn't have to worry that the price at checkout will be higher than the price they saw on the shelf. This settlement puts money back in consumers' pockets and helps ensure shoppers get the prices they were promised," Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said in a release.

The complaint alleges that thousands of Family Dollar stores used "deceptive pricing practices" for years to overcharge customers by charging more at the register than was indicated elsewhere, including prices listed in company mailers, its website and mobile app.

"Family Dollar has charged consumers more at the register than the prices it advertises—betraying the trust of millions of American consumers who rely on Family Dollar for essential household goods and necessities and imposing significant financial harm on the communities that can least afford it," said the complaint.

Family Dollar operates over 7,000 stores across the nation, including 55 in Utah, according to its website.

The complaint states that many of those 7,000 locations are concentrated in areas Family Dollar itself classifies as "food deserts," meaning residents don't have access to full-service grocery stores, making Family Dollar one of the only accessible sources for food and basic household items.

Since 2023, Family Dollar has collected millions in unlawful overcharges, the complaint alleges, adding that the company failed to fix the problem despite thousands of failed inspections, hundreds of consumer complaints and multiple enforcement actions.

Under the proposed order, Family Dollar would:

• Pay $40 million into a fund to repay eligible customers
• Fund a $20 million discount program for its customers
• Pay more than $3 million to the states
• Post notices in its stores and on its website and app telling customers they may be eligible for a payment
• Stop misrepresenting the prices of its goods and services
• Set up a pricing accuracy program that regularly checks its prices, trains employees to spot pricing errors, and corrects errors promptly. An independent assessor would review the program, and the company would certify it every year.

In 2025, Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to private equity firms Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management for just over $1 billion.

"Shoppers deserve to trust that the price they see on the shelf or in an advertisement is the price they pay at checkout," Margaret Woolley Busse, commissioner of the Utah Department of Commerce, said in a release. "We are proud to return money to customers who were deceived, and we are holding Family Dollar accountable to ensure that pricing integrity and transparency are priorities in their retail practices."

In another complaint filed in October, Utah, the FTC and a handful of other states sued Dollar General for similar deceptive pricing practices, overcharging consumers and failing to correct the issue despite warnings. That litigation is ongoing.

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