CVS Caremark Corp. last year had a 67 percent increase in the number of state violations for allegedly overcharging customers, the largest of any retailer in Massachusetts, according to a report to be released today.
Consumer advocates and organizers from Change to Win, a coalition of American labor unions, plan to unveil the analysis - compiled from inspection reports from the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation - and call upon lawmakers to do more to strengthen pricing protections.
At CVS, the total number of alleged pricing accuracy violations, such as items missing price stickers and inaccurate signs on shelves, declined to 2,094 last year, from 2,560 in 2007.
But the number of overcharging violations - defined as charging more at the register than the price in an advertisement, on a shelf sign, or on the item itself - soared to 711, from 425.
By comparison, rival Walgreens had 71 violations for overcharging.
"The amount of overcharges inspectors found at CVS has increased at a startling rate," said Deanne Dworski-Riggs, an organizer on the Cure CVS campaign, initiated by Change to Win and other partner organizations. "Even after the Globe reported on this issue last year, overcharging continues to be a serious problem. I was shocked at the number of overcharges we found at CVS stores."
CVS, the nation's largest pharmacy chain and based in Woonsocket, R.I., said in a statement that it makes every effort to ensure the prices posted in its stores are accurate.
"Discrepancies between a price scanned at our register and the price posted on store shelves may occur when sale signs are not removed in a timely manner. Also, in order to comply with Massachusetts' item pricing law, price labels must be manually changed on each product every time there is a change in the price," CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis said in the statement.
"While both pricing processes are labor-intensive and not immune from error - a typical CVS/pharmacy has more than 100,000 items on its shelves - we strive to achieve 100 percent accuracy and move quickly to rectify any unintentional discrepancy."
DeAngelis added: "This is the latest in a series of misleading attacks by Change to Win against CVS Caremark. This consortium of labor unions began a campaign to disparage our company in 2007 after we refused to waive our employees' right to vote confidentially in union elections."
The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation confirmed the contents of the reports provided to the Change to Win campaign.
CVS was fined a total of $349,600 in 2007 and 2008 for alleged violations of the state's pricing-accuracy regulations.
Aaron Weintrob, who worked at CVS for 14 years until leaving last year, said it is costlier for CVS to follow the pricing laws than to pay the fines.
"It's deliberate," said Weintrob, who now works as a retail salesman in Massachusetts. "If price accuracy was important, CVS would have the measures in place - signs, item pricing, employing people to maintain accuracy - to follow the law. Fines are simply looked at as the cost of doing business."
CVS confirmed that Weintrob worked for the company.
In addition to violations found by the state, surveyors from Cure CVS who visited 22 CVS stores in the Boston area during April were overcharged on purchases at 20 of these stores for items including tissue, baby wipes, mascara, and extension cords. The average overcharge was 56 cents.
Consumer advocates, who plan to meet at the State House today, said lawmakers need to strengthen consumer protection laws and increase penalties and enforcement to deter violators. Currently, there are several bills before lawmakers that would weaken the law, including making more categories of items exempt from item pricing and reducing the fines.
"Over the years, the law has been weakened, state pricing regulations have been watered down," said Edgar Dworsky, a consumer lawyer and former Massachusetts assistant attorney general who drafted the state's original item pricing law 22 years ago.
"All these bills are headed in the wrong direction from a consumer protection standpoint, and consumer advocates will be mounting a strong fight against them."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
