North Carolina Investigating Over 600 Hurricane Florence Price Gouging Complaints

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein's office says the state is looking into roughly 650 price gouging reports as of Tuesday afternoon.

The complaints have mostly been related to gas and water purchases.

Under North Carolina law, the definition of price gouging boils down to charging a price for essential services that is “unreasonably excessive under the circumstances.”

Stein wants businesses to know that price gouging remains illegal as long as a state of emergency exists in North Carolina.

"Our hope is, because the law is only about ten years old in North Carolina, is that with businesses knowing it's there, and knowing that our office is ready and willing and able to enforce it if necessary, that businesses are complying with it and they are not raising their prices unreasonably in the wake of this disaster," said Stein. 

Stein adds that as floodwaters recede, he expects to see an increase in complaints related to charitable donations, home repair and tree removal.