Commission hands out R5.9m in penalties over lockdown price hikes
The Competition Commission has accumulated R5.9 million in administrative fines over excessive pricing of masks, sanitizers and, food items during the lockdown.
The commission briefed Parliament's committee on trade and industry on Tuesday.
Commissioner Thembinkosi Bonakele said they received 1354 complaints and tip-offs.
"Not all of these complaints raised relevant competition issues for us to pursue, but what they do is that they keep our screening unit quiet busy because from there we have to sift through cases that warrant investigations," he said.
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Bonakele said there have been three trends the commission observed, which include retailers who hiked prices due to import costs going up, opportunistic traders who started selling masks and hand sanitisers at excessive prices, and retailers who hiked prices due to panic buying.
A total R5.3 million was donated to the solidarity fund and some other small donations to hospitals and non-governmental organisations were made in penalities.