Opportunistic sellers hiking
● Profiteering reported in stores and online on sites like Amazon and ebay over items such as paracetamol and masks
More than a third of people say that they have been forced to pay sky-high prices to get hold of essential hygiene and medical products during the coronavirus pandemic as opportunistic sellers have sought to exploit the crisis by price gouging, new research has revealed.
There have been price gouging issues both online and instore, according to the consumers who reported problems to consumer watchdog Which?. Most reports related to alleged profiteering by sellers online, with tech giants Amazon and ebay accounting for the majority of listings.
Among the cases logged by the tool - shared by Which? with the Competitions and Markets Authority’s Covid-19 taskforce - are Dettol handwash being sold via Amazon, unknown to the brand, for £14.99 rather than £1.49 and a packet of paracetamol on sale in a local store for more than seven times the usual price.
Other examples reported to
Which? by consumers were medical-grade face masks that might be required by key workers, including an N95 face mask for £28.99 - nearly 20 times the usual price according to the tool user - via medical supply website UK Meds. Another person reported seeing the same mask on sale on the website for £14.99 - 10 times the usual price, they reported.
An FFP3 mask from ebay in May was on sale for £19.99 instead of £4 - five times the price.
Which? found that the average percentage price difference for hygiene products such as hand sanitiser and disinfectant was 414 per cent - five times the price on average. Across all product categories, 30 per cent of people had bought an item at an inflated price while four in 10 reported that they simply had to go without because of the excessive price of the product.
Sue Davies, head of consumer protection at Which?, said: “Our tool reports show that price hikes on essential items have too often been excessive and people consider them to be unfair and exploitative. International experience shows that price gouging is frequently a problem during national emergencies and the UK should ensure it is better able to crack down on profiteering.
“It’s good the CMA is now attempting to take action to investigate some instances of price gouging using competition law. However, the government should be helping the regulator by giving it more targeted powers to take swifter action to stamp out price gouging, and ensure the price of essential items stays at reasonable levels during a crisis when people need them most.”
One person who bought a case of hand sanitiser off Chemist-4-u.com told Which?: “I am furious that after buying hand sanitiser for £64.99 in late March, more recently the price has magically fallen by £40. I am a nonmedical frontline worker and as a self-employed lawyer I am reliant on hand sanitiser to keep myself and others safe.”
Four in ten of the essential hygiene products which were reported as having inflated prices were hand sanitiser and soap. Recently the competition regulator (CMA) announced it is investigating four pharmacies and convenience stores for the suspected charging of excessive and unfair prices for hand sanitiser.
While the number of reports of problems has decreased in recent weeks, people continued to report items at extortionate costs throughout May andjune,suggestingthatthere are outstanding problems with suspected price gouging due to seemingly unjustifiable price hikes. Which? said these prices could be high because of increased costs of materials or supply chain issues.
A spokesman for Amazon said: “There is no place for price gouging on Amazon. When a bad actor attempts to
“Our tool reports show that price hikes on essential items have too often been excessive and people consider them to be unfair and exploitative”
SUE DAVIES
artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis, it’s bad for customers and the hundreds of thousands of honest businesses selling in our store.
“In line with our longstanding policy, we have recently blocked or removed hundreds of thousands of offers and pursued legal action against hundreds of bad actors across a number of countries.”
A spokesman for ebay said: “The single listing that Which? was able to share with us was reviewed and removed for reasons unrelated to price gouging.”
UK Meds did not respond to requests for comment.