When Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency on March 9, he triggered New Jersey’s emergency pricing law, which blocks sellers from increasing prices on emergency-related goods. The unprecedented scope and duration of the COVID-19 emergency will raise unprecedented questions about this law’s application.

The emergency pricing law, N.J.S.A. 56:8-107 to -109, precludes sellers from charging prices that are:

more than 10 percent [higher than] the price at which the good or service was sold or offered for sale by the seller in the usual course of business immediately prior to [a declared] state of emergency, unless the price charged by the seller is attributable to additional costs imposed by the seller’s supplier or other costs of providing the good or service during the state of emergency.