{"id":392301,"date":"2020-04-24T07:30:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T05:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=392301"},"modified":"2020-04-24T07:30:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T05:30:44","slug":"dis-chem-faces-competition-tribunal-for-hiking-prices-during-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/392301\/dis-chem-faces-competition-tribunal-for-hiking-prices-during-coronavirus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Dis-Chem faces Competition Tribunal for hiking prices during coronavirus pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Competiton Commission has referred Dis-Chem to the Competition Tribunal for excessive pricing during South Africa&#8217;s coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>This referral follows an investigation by the commission which found that Dis-chem charged excessive pricing on essential hygienic goods to the detriment of customers and in contravention of Section 8 of the Competiton Act, it said in a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CompComSA\/status\/1253325291381915649\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement<\/a> <\/strong>on Thursday (23 April).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From 28 March, the Commission received several complaints from the public against several retail stores owned by Dis-Chem foe engaging in excessive pricing of face masks, specifically dusk and surgical masks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some of the examples highlighted by the commission include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For surgical mask &#8216;blue 50PC&#8217;, the average price was inflated from R43.47 (excluding VAT) per unit in February 2020 to R156.96 per unit in March 2020. A price increase of 261%.<\/li>\n<li>For surgical mask &#8216;5PC&#8217;, the average price was inflated from R13.27 (excluding VAT) per unit in February 2020 to R19.03 per unit in March 2020. A price increase of 43%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;People who seek these essential products ought to appreciate that these are literally life-saving items right now,&#8221; said competition commissioner Tebinkosi Bonakele.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They shouldn&#8217;t be exploitative and take advantage of cash-strapped consumers during the worst time in our history. We will spare no effort in protecting the consumer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pricing regulations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the declaration of Covid-19 as a national disaster, government published regulations aimed at stopping price gouging in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The new pricing regulations prohibit dominant suppliers from charging excessive prices for certain specified goods and services, says Tamara Dini, co-head of Competition at law firm Bowmans.<\/p>\n<p>Dini said that the new regulations around pricing provide that a price increase by a dominant supplier of specified critical medical equipment and basic consumer goods will be \u2018a relevant and critical factor in determining whether a price is excessive or unfair\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>They further indicate the price will be deemed to be &#8216;excessive or unfair&#8217;in terms of the Competition Act, in circumstances where the price increase:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Does not correspond to, or is not equivalent to, an increase in cost; or<\/li>\n<li>Increases the net margin or mark-up on the product or service above the average margin or mark-up in the three months prior to 1 March 2020.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Under the Act, dominant firms alleged to have engaged in excessive pricing must be able to demonstrate that the price charged was reasonable,&#8221; said Dini.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If not, a penalty of up to 10% of the firm\u2019s annual turnover may be imposed for a first offence and up to 25% if the conduct is substantially a repeat by the same firm of conduct previously found by the Tribunal to be a prohibited practice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/392241\/south-africa-to-begin-phased-lifting-of-lockdown-from-30-april-heres-what-will-happen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa to begin phased lifting of lockdown from 30 April \u2013 here\u2019s what will happen<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Competiton Commission has referred Dis-Chem to the Competition Tribunal for excessive pricing during South Africa&#8217;s coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":210353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[11649,26],"class_list":["post-392301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-dis-chem","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392301"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392315,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392301\/revisions\/392315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}