Washington, D.C. - As announced late yesterday afternoon, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against Wal-Mart for the “continued failure to correct pricing violations at their stores across Arizona.”

According to AG Goddard, “each year the Department of Weights and Measures sends inspectors to retailers throughout Arizona to verify that prices are posted and that shelf prices match checkout prices.” Violations occur when a store exceeds a 2 percent error rate.

Based on AG Goddard’s investigation, over the past five years, Wal-Mart failed more than half of inspections and continues to violate the Consumers Fraud Act. The lawsuit alleges violations involve “more than scanning overcharges at the cash register,” but also includes the “failure to post prices for many products.” Aside from Arizona, two studies released last year also found pricing scanner errors at Wal-Mart stores in four states.

Released last November, studies conducted by the University of Illinois-Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development and the University of California-Berkeley found pricing errors in four states, Michigan, California, Indiana, and Illinois, among stores analyzed. The two studies examined the pricing accuracy, the difference between the shelf-price and the cash register price, at Wal-Mart stores and concluded the pricing errors at Wal-Mart stores in these 4 states failed to meet the federal guidelines set by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The federal standard, set by the NIST, require that no more than 2 out of 100 randomly selected items from any one store may be incorrectly priced.

Over the last seven months, concerns over Wal-Mart pricing errors have led to similar AG investigations in Michigan and Connecticut. Since 2003, other states, including Massachusetts, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, Florida, Illinois, and Puerto Rico, have investigated Wal-Mart stores for price scanner errors or overcharging consumers.

Additional information concerning the lawsuit failed by the Arizona Attorney General is available at www.azag.gov

In light of the pricing scanner lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart in Arizona, WakeUpWalMart.com campaign director, Paul Blank, released the following statement.

"On behalf of all consumers, we renew our call for Wal-Mart to take immediate steps to address pricing error problems that seem to plague its stores in some states. As we enter the “Back-to-School” season, no mother or father, in any state, should have to worry about whether they are being overcharged. The fact is that given Wal-Mart’s supposed record of technological prowess and top-down management control, there is no excuse why these pricing errors continue to occur at Wal-Mart.

Ironically, the solution to Wal-Mart’s pricing scanner problems is quite simple - charge the right price. At this rate, with pricing error concerns raised in a number of states, it seems fair to say that Wal-Mart will have to rethink its slogan to 'Sometimes Low Prices' if you are really lucky."