Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel is warning you: don’t take advantage of Oregon’s state of emergency by charging extra for goods.

“If you’re putting our community at risk in order to make a buck during a time of crisis, in addition to rotting in hell, you’ll face the full weight of the legal power granted to me by the people of Oregon,” he said in a press statement on Monday.

The application of that full weight for those in Deschutes County will have to wait on Gov. Kate Brown. She must declare an “abnormal disruption of the market” before the district attorney can move to punish price gougers.

Hummel, a former Bend city councilor, says the governor’s office told him that Brown was “monitoring the market to determine if an ‘abnormal disruption of the market’ is occurring” as officials try to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus in Oregon. In the meantime, consumers who believe they have faced excessive prices should call the Oregon Department of Justice’s consumer-protection hotline at 1-877-877-9392.

“If the Governor determines an ‘abnormal disruption of the market’ exists in Deschutes County, and makes such a declaration,” Hummel declared, “I will have a zero-tolerance policy toward offenders.”

The relevant law states that price gouging is occurring when the amount a retailer or wholesaler charges for “essential consumer goods or services” exceeds by 15 percent or more what they were charging before the declaration of an abnormal disruption of the market, or it exceeds by 15 percent of more what is being charged for the same goods or services in a nearby area.

Gov. Brown declared a state of emergency on March 8.

-- Douglas Perry

@douglasmperry

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