A new and unprecedented investment environment has been created during the current COVID emergency as every state that has price gouging laws on its books has activated them, and states without official statues are regulating prices by executive order or existing consumer protection and unfair trade practice laws. Never before have price controls been active across the entire United States, and for such a lengthy period of time, requiring fund managers to consider the risks of price gouging enforcement and assess portfolio investments in light of key attributes of price gouging statues. In this article, we review these potential risks to help assist fund managers when conducting diligence and valuations in order to be better positioned to account, manage and plan for them.
