Apparently we are not the only ones who think people selling gas on Craigslist for several times the usual cost are price-gouging dicks. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has subpoenaed the classified ad website to hand over the identities of about 100 advertisers who put up ads offering gas for wildly inflated prices. While we found the going rate to be somewhere between about $8 and $20 a gallon when we checked last week, NBC New York reports that Schneiderman is looking into an advertiser who offered twelve gallons of gas for $300 and another who wanted $150 for a can that normally sells for $17, which may or may not contain any gas. As CNN reported earlier, “New York’s price gouging law doesn’t specifically define what constitutes an ‘unconscionably excessive’ price,” but “gross” disparities are illegal. The going rate for gas is a little over $4 right now, so yeah, those guys sound like they fit the bill. Whether Craigslist will give up the identities is another issue entirely, and one worth watching.
