Home Depot shoppers in Southern California thought they were grabbing deals off the shelf, only to discover at the register that the store’s scanners had other plans. County inspectors say a sweeping review of transactions found that nearly two thirds of tested items rang up at prices higher than advertised, a pattern prosecutors framed as a “scanner trap” that quietly shifted millions of dollars from customers to the retailer. I see this case as a warning shot for anyone who assumes the barcode is always right.
At the center of the controversy is a nearly $2 million settlement resolving allegations that Home Depot’s checkout systems routinely overcharged customers on everyday items. The company did not admit wrongdoing, but it agreed to change how it manages pricing and promotions in its stores, especially in Los Angeles and Orange counties, where officials say the problem was too widespread to be chalked up to simple mistakes.
How a routine inspection turned into a ‘scanner trap’ case
What began as standard consumer protection work in California escalated once inspectors started comparing shelf tags to receipts. In Orange County, California, investigators reported that 64 percent of the items they tested at Home Depot rang up at a higher price than what was posted on the shelf or product label, a failure rate that goes far beyond the occasional mismatched tag. That pattern is what led officials to describe the situation as a “scanner trap,” a system in which the store’s technology and pricing controls consistently favored the company over the customer at the point of sale.
Those findings did not stay confined to one store. County prosecutors argued that the same pricing practices were in play across multiple locations, and that the cumulative effect was to quietly skim extra money from shoppers on everything from tools to cleaning supplies. Reporting on the investigation describes how inspectors in Orange County, California, documented the 64 percent error rate and used it to support a broader complaint that Home Depot’s checkout systems were systematically overcharging customers, a pattern detailed in coverage of the scanner trap findings.
What prosecutors say Home Depot did wrong
At the legal level, the case turned on a simple but powerful rule: the price you see on the shelf is supposed to match what you pay at the register. Prosecutors in Los Angeles County accused Home Depot of violating that standard by allowing its scanners to charge more than the posted price, a problem consumer advocates often call a “scanner violation.” The complaint alleged that the company’s internal systems did not reliably update promotional prices and shelf tags, so customers were charged higher amounts even when the store’s own signage promised a lower deal…