Newsom extends price gouging restrictions in LA County through 2021

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday issued an executive order extending through next December the prohibition of price gouging in Los Angeles County and several other areas of California impacted by wildfires.

“Communities impacted by these wildfires in Butte, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma and Ventura counties have indicated a need for price gouging protections to remain in place because, for example, many rebuilding permits for homes damaged or destroyed by the wildfires have not yet been submitted, much less approved,” the order states.

Newsom previously extended the price gouging protections on Dec. 23, 2019, for wildfires that occurred between 2017 and 2019.

Los Angeles County had a series of additional wildfires in 2020, the largest being the Bobcat Fire, which broke out in the Angeles National Forest near Azusa on Sept. 6 and scorched more than 115,000 acres. Twenty-eight homes were destroyed and 87 were damaged.

Newsom waived for another year the following time limitations outlined in the California Penal Code:

— for 180 days following a proclamation or declaration of state of emergency, a contractor can not sell or offer to sell any repair or reconstruction services or any services used in an emergency cleanup for a price of more than 10% above the price charged by that person for those services immediately prior to the proclamation or declaration;

— for 30 days a person, business or entity can not sell or offer to sell any food items, goods, services for emergency cleanup, emergency supplies, medical supplies, building materials, housing transportation, freight, storage services, gasoline or other motor fuels for more than 10% higher than the price immediately prior to the proclamation or declaration;

— for 30 days, a person, business or entity can not increase a home’s rental price by more than 10% higher than the price immediately prior to the proclamation or declaration; and

–for 30 days following the proclamation or declaration of emergency, a person, business or entity cannot evict any residential tenant.

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