[#Beijing two departments issued guidance on illegal behavior of price gouging during the epidemic#]Price gouging during the epidemic will be severely punished. Recently, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Market Supervision and the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission issued the “Guiding Opinions on Determining Illegal Behaviors of Price Gouging During the Prevention and Control of the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic”. The introduction of the guiding opinions aims to regulate the market price behavior during the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, maintain the price stability of daily necessities such as grain, oil, meat, eggs, vegetables, milk, and anti-epidemic supplies, and strengthen and standardize the city’s market supervision department to investigate and punish illegal acts of driving up prices.
The scope of application of the guiding opinions is that the people’s livelihood commodities such as grain, oil, meat, eggs, vegetables, milk, etc., which are necessary for the people to maintain their basic life; Relevant raw and auxiliary materials required for the first and second items; transportation, transaction, distribution, booth rental and other related services provided for the above-mentioned first and second items.
Operators fabricate and spread information on price increases to increase prices substantially; production costs or purchase costs have not changed significantly, but prices increase substantially; take the lead in significantly raising prices in some regions or industries; Significant price hikes; use other means to drive up prices to push commodity prices to rise too fast or too high, and one of the above situations constitutes price gouging.
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily noticed that the guidance provided a detailed description of the criteria for determining the increase.
1. If there is no significant change in the cost, the price difference between purchases and sales exceeds 7 days before April 25, 2022 (including the day), and the transaction is completed on this trading venue. The current purchase and sale price difference rate > the original maximum purchase and sale price difference rate × 120%). The price difference between purchases and sales = (sales price – purchase price) / purchase price. Among them, the “purchase price” does not include the circulation expenses incurred by the operator in the process of purchasing, transporting, storing and selling commodities.
2. If the cost changes obviously due to objective reasons such as transportation and labor, the price difference between purchases and sales shall be reasonably determined based on the actual cost.
3. Before April 25, 2022 (including the day), if the same commodity or similar commodity has not been actually sold, or the actual transaction situation cannot be verified, the current purchase and sale price difference rate exceeds the original reasonable purchase and sales price difference rate by 20% (current purchase and sales price difference rate) The sales price difference rate > the original reasonable purchase and sales price difference rate × 120%). The original reasonable price difference between purchases and sales refers to a reasonable value determined with reference to the price difference between the same commodity or similar products in the surrounding (or similar) markets of the operator during the same period.
4. Although the current price difference does not exceed 20% of the original price difference (the current price difference ≤ original price difference × 120%), if it has a serious impact on the market price order, the market supply and demand conditions should be comprehensively considered , subjective intentions and the degree of social harm to determine whether it constitutes price gouging.
5. If the unit sales price of the commodity is less than 3 yuan and the behavior does not have a serious impact on the market price order, it may not be determined as price gouging according to the actual situation.
If it is identified as price gouging, the law enforcement department will impose administrative penalties in accordance with Article 40 of the “Price Law of the People’s Republic of China”, Article 6 of the “Regulations on Administrative Penalties for Price Violations” and other relevant regulations. If it is found that the operator’s behavior of driving up prices is suspected of constituting a crime such as the crime of illegal business operation, it shall be transferred to the public security organ for handling according to law.
The guidance will be implemented from the date of promulgation, and will be suspended from the date when there are no high-risk areas within the city’s administrative region for 14 consecutive days. When a new round of COVID-19, other public health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. lead to tight market supply and abnormal price fluctuations, the guideline may be used to determine price gouging. With reference to the execution date and the base date for the calculation of the price difference between purchases and sales, the date on which the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau issued a city-wide special reminder and started emergency law enforcement shall prevail.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wang Wei