COLUMBUS, Ohio — Some food pantries across the state will receive a financial boost as part of a legal settlement with a major retailer.

What You Need To Know

  • Family Dollar agreed to pay $400,000 to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost as part of a legal settlement surrounding alleged violations of the state's Consumer Protection Sales Act

  • The total includes $250,000 that will be dispersed to Ohio food banks and nonprofits

  • Attorney General Yost filed a lawsuit against Family Dollar in 2022 alleging store audits found some products rang up higher at the register than the price on the shelf

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday hundreds of thousands of dollars is on its way to nonprofits after the state reached an agreement with Family Dollar surrounding alleged violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Sales Act.

More than half of the $400,000 settlement will go to Ohio food banks, according to court documents filed in Butler County Friday, with Family Dollar required to pay the entire amount to Yost’s office.

Yost said each county auditor will help select which food pantries or other nonprofits will receive a portion of $250,000 to help provide food and personal care items to the community.

The settlement stems from a 2022 lawsuit Yost filed against Family Dollar, alleging store audits found some products were ringing up higher at the register than the price displayed on the shelf.

In a news release Tuesday, Yost said he met with food banks statewide who are excited to benefit from this agreement.

“They’re serving the same people that we’re trying to help with this legal process and the settlement,” he said. “I know that dollars go farther through local food banks than almost anything because they’re run substantially by volunteers. They run on paper-thin margins and really put a lot of resources back on the street.”

In addition to the penalty payments, the settlement also requires Family Dollar to make some internal changes to help ensure accurate pricing. Those include having enough staff to update shelf tags and making immediate price adjustments at the register if a customer identifies a discrepancy.

Dollar Tree, Family Dollar’s parent company, was initially a part of the lawsuit but was dismissed once the state settled with Family Dollar.

The terms of this settlement are similar to the agreement reached between the state and Dollar General last fall. In that case, the attorney general’s office received $1 million with $750,000 of that earmarked for state food pantries.