One of South Africa’s biggest chain of pharmacies has been referred to the country’s Competition Tribunal for hiking face mask prices by up to 261%.
Dis-Chem Pharmacies Limited was investigated by the government competition commission after complaints from consumers.
“People who sell these essential products ought to appreciate that these are literally life-saving items right now,” Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said in a statement.
“They shouldn’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.”
The commission gave an example of how the price for 50 surgical face masks had been inflated from 43.47 rand (excluding VAT) ($2.28; £1.84) in February to 156.96 rand in March.
Dis-Chem has not commented.
Source: BBC
