Kansas City, Mo – Attorney General Chris Koster announced Friday that a Jackson County judge found that Walgreens violated a 2014 judgment 309 times by leaving sales tags on the shelves after the sales period expired, putting customers at risk for overcharges.

In August 2013, Koster sued Illinois-based Walgreens for violations of Missouri’s consumer laws by displaying inaccurate sales tags, overcharging customers, and failing to remove expired sales tags, among other acts. Koster’s investigation found a correlation between expired sales tags and overcharges at the register. Walgreens employees told investigators that when a sale expires, a center computer system changes the prices whether or not the tags on the shelf are updated.

Missouri and Walgreens resolved the case with a Consent Judgment and Permanent Injunction, which was signed by the court on June 4, 2014. The consent judgment prohibited Walgreens from leaving expired sales tags on display more than 12 hours from the time the offer expired.

Despite the court-ordered consent judgment, Koster’s investigators found hundreds of sales tags displayed after the expiration date listed on the tag during inspections of 50 Missouri Walgreens stores in July-September 2015. As a result of the inspections, Koster asked the court to hold Walgreens responsible for violating the consent judgment.

Jackson County Judge Jennifer M. Phillips found Walgreens violated the consent judgment and the court’s order on 309 occasions. Judge Phillips also ordered Walgreens to pay $309,000 in civil penalties ($1,000 for each violation). Judge Phillips also found that Walgreens was aware not all sale tags were being removed within 12 hours of their offer expiring and that expired sale tags were resulting in overcharges to Missouri consumers.

“Walgreens repeatedly cheated customers by representing that items were on sale when in fact the sale was over,” Koster said. “The court gave Walgreens an opportunity to fix the problem, and it failed to do so. At last, Walgreens will pay a price for its deceptive conduct.”

In addition to the penalties ordered, Walgreens has already paid the state of Missouri $165,000 for overcharging items purchased as part of pricing audits required by the judgment.