A market inspector checks Lianhua Qingwen capsules at a chain drugstore in Beijing on Wednesday. The parent company of the drugstore had earlier been given a fine for price gouging on its online retailing shop. (Photo by Li Muyi/For China Daily)
Market regulation authorities have stepped up efforts to crack down on price gouging and profiteering on COVID-19 drugs and other anti-epidemic materials.
The Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation has launched investigations into four cases of price hiking by local drugstores and wholesale dealers.
According to a release from the administration, one wholesale dealer in the city has raised the price of Lianhua Qingwen capsules, a traditional Chinese medicine commonly used to treat COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, to 6.5 times the purchasing price.
One drugstore raised the price of Lianhua Qingwen from 40 yuan ($5.70) per unit to 58 yuan from Dec 5 and the price for a different type of Lianhua Qingwen was increased from 48 yuan to 58 yuan and then to 80 yuan per unit on Dec 1.
A hashtag about Lianhua Qingwen capsules costing more than 100 yuan per unit has become a trending topic on Sina Weibo, with netizens calling for a swift investigation into the cases.
According to Chengdu.cn, 10 units of Lianhua Qingwen were sold at 1,020 yuan on Dec 6 on the e-commerce platform JD, an increase of 240 percent from the previous price. On Alibaba-affiliated Tmall platform, Lianhua Qingwen was also sold at twice the normal price.
The State Administration for Market Regulation said it has investigated reports of price hikes on e-commerce platforms and has asked local authorities to verify the reports.
Local market regulation authorities have filed cases against all online drugstores that have been found to be increasing prices based on preliminary investigations, the administration said.
The investigations have also found that some dealers have dramatically increased the price of epidemic control materials since early December.
The administration will pay close attention to the prices of drugs and other epidemic control materials and oversee the efforts of local authorities to crack down on hoarding and profiteering.
The Price Law and several other guidelines stipulate that market regulation authorities can hand down fines as high as 3 million yuan for deliberate price gouging, according to Wei Xianzhou, a lawyer at Beijing-based Zhongdun Law Office.
Market regulation authorities can also confiscate illegal gains and strip gougers of their operating licenses, Wei told Legal Daily.
Now is the perfect time for drugstores and companies to build good reputations, the kind that cannot be bought by advertisements, he said, adding that those who want to profit from the epidemic will probably end up with their shops closed.
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