County Sealers of Weights and Measures Play Key Role in Recent Home Depot False Advertising Case

Most consumers don’t know about efforts in their counties to protect against retail fraud.

Last week a group of county district attorneys announced that Home Depot had entered into a stipulated judgment paying nearly $2 million to settle a civil lawsuit alleging false advertising and unfair competition arising from overcharging customers. 

District attorneys were alerted to this situation after receiving consumer complaints and were able to act on evidence provided by a group of officials known as county Sealers of Weights and Measures. Although most consumers have never heard of their county “Sealer,”  every California county has one. These individuals are working every day to ensure retail outlets, gas stations and other commercial operations aren’t overcharging for a variety of consumer goods from eggs to gasoline. 

“Every California county has a licensed employee who serves as the county’s official Sealer of Weights and Measures,” explains Lindsey Carter, Executive Director of the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association (CACASA), an organization that represents these county officials. “In nearly all counties the County Sealer also serves as County Agricultural Commissioner.  These individuals are hired and employed by the County Board of Supervisors and they oversee a staff who perform a myriad of duties designed to ensure pesticide laws are enforced, that bees, farmworkers and the environment are protected and that invasive pests are prevented from taking hold in the state’s agricultural fields.  In addition, under their responsibilities as the county Sealer they work to make sure retail store pricing is accurate, that a pound of something you buy in the store really weighs a pound and that a gallon of gas is what ends up in your tank when you purchase a gallon of gas at the pump. 

“County Sealers of Weights and Measures are the unsung heroes when it comes to consumer protections,” continued Carter.  “The recent Home Depot case is a perfect example of how the county Sealers work to protect consumers. The case and the resulting positive judgment would not have been possible without them.”

The case against Home Depot began several years ago when a handful of consumer complaints were filed in Orange County against the big box chain. Evidence of mispricing at Home Depots located in Orange County provided by the County Sealer verified that routine pricing inspections conducted at Home Depots between 2018 and 2022 indicated 64 percent resulted in overcharges to the consumer. After learning that the San Diego County District Attorney’s office was also investigating overcharges at Home Depot, a joint investigation was conducted and eventually expanded to include District Attorney offices from Orange, San Diego, Alameda, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Sonoma.

“Sealers of Weights and Measures in offices from all six of these counties provided price verification inspection data that supported the continuing violations by Home Depot. This data enabled a statewide civil action to be filed,” says Jose Arriaga, the Sealer of Weights and Measures in Orange County. “The case was filed in Superior Court of California in San Diego County on August 26, 2024 charging Home Depot with overcharging consumers and making false or misleading statements with regards to the price of an item. We are really happy to report the evidence provided by county Sealers was compelling and a settlement was reached quite quickly.

“As noted in last week’s announcement, not only was Home Depot charged a fine, but they were also ordered to initiate and maintain an internal Price Accuracy Program to promote price accuracy in every existing Home Depot store in California,” said Arriaga. “This is designed to ensure there is real change at this retail operation. But Sealers in every California county will continue to check up on them as we do with a wide array of other retail establishments.”

According to a report from California Department of Food and Agriculture, in fiscal year 2022-23 county sealers throughout the state tested the pricing accuracy of 372,344 items at 23,674 different locations. The report found that just over 2 percent of the items checked were found to be overcharges. But, as was seen in the Home Depot case, the county Sealer system works to ensure that continuous fraud is identified and prevented.

“County Sealers and their staff are diligently working to protect consumers and are routinely visiting retail outlets monitoring prices and checking to make sure that weights of products sold at retail are accurate,” said Carter, who explained that county Sealers also routinely inspect and test all water, electric and natural gas sub-meters, gasoline pumps and propane dispensers to ensure they are accurate and any commercial operation that uses a scale to sell consumer goods, must have them regularly certified by the county Sealer.

“The Sealers of Weights and Measures touch so many of the items we buy every day, it’s kind of amazing that we don’t hear more about them,” says Carter.  “But it’s good to know these individuals are there watching out for us.”