Price gouging is a term referring to a situation in which a seller prices goods or commodities much higher than is considered reasonable or fair.

Mike of Newbern TN writes (9/12/01): All the gas stati0ns in the Dyersburg area have raised their gas prices from $1.40 a gallon to $4.00 a gallon in a matter of four hours. This is crazy and called price gouging. I farm and can not afford to pay that kind of money to keep my trucks on the road. I am poor and scratch to get by. This kind of bull needs to be stopped now!

My trucks hauling grain to the grainery burn around 200 gallons a day. 200 gallons times $1.40 is $280.00 dollars a day. 200 gallons times $4.00 is $800.00 dollars a day. Corn prices are $1.98 a bushel. I can not afford this. I know other farmers in this area that want it stopped. It is stupid! We as farmers strughle enough as it is, why capitalize on a bad situation when we should all be working together?

Day 10 – 9/1/05, Bush Warns: No gouging Bush expresses 'zero tolerance' of price

gouging in interview as prices spike above $3 a gallon.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush warned Thursday against price-gouging of gasoline in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and said looters should be treated with zero tolerance.

"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Bush said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Last update Sep 14, 2008 @ 08:35 AM Hurricane Ike not only hit the heart of the U.S. oil refinery

industry Saturday. The effects of the storm in Texas also hit the heart of Illinois, where the cost of gasoline spiked.

As pump prices increased as much as 50 cents in a matter of hours at some central Illinois service stations, police and the state attorney general's office were investigating reports of gas-price gouging.

"We saw prices go from $3.79 to $4.30 in eight to 10 hours," Illinois State Police District 8 spokesman Tony Halsey said. "That's just outrageous."Prices in Galesburg jumped from $3.89 Friday night to $4.29 Saturday night.

Police patrolled central Illinois on the lookout for price spikes. There were reports of some stations charging as much as $5 to $7 a gallon, according to police, although Halsey said any station charging more than $4 a gallon would be reported to the attorney general's office for investigation.