19 May 2020

 

Competition and Consumer Authority Concerned About Price Hikes

Deceitful trade practice including unreasonable price hikes by some entrepreneurs during the current economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is a cause for concern, the Chief Executive Officer (CED) of the Competition and Consumer Authority (CCA), Ms Tebelelo Pule has said.

Addressing a press conference at the Botswana Television studios on Tuesday, May19, Ms Pule said her organisation is currently investigating and pursuing cases of those who engage in unfair trade practice.

“During the lockdown we worked hard with businesses and consumers to conduct price surveillance and we observed increase in prices, low quality of goods and services being sold and we worked with the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) to test the quality of some of these. Some of them did not meet the required standards,” Ms Pule said.

She explained that the Emergency Powers regulations have listed some essential service items that are not supposed to be overpriced, and some of the enterprises engaging in unscrupulous trading practice could meet the full arm of the law.

Ms Pule said there is a maximum five-year imprisonment that could be meted out on those legally found guilty of contravening the pricing regulations regarding essential service goods, that include sanitisers and masks that protect people against the spread of Coronavirus.

She further explained that that over the past two years, her organisation saw its mandate widen to include the enforcement of both the Competition and Consumer Protection acts passed in 2018, and the placement of the administration of the two acts under one entity, the CCA.

Ms Pule further elucidated that the previous Competition Commission was disbanded to make way for the Competition Board, and that there is a Competition Tribunal that examines issues regarding trade competition.

Among the areas the CCA is mandated to oversee is the protection of enterprises and consumers against anti-competitive behaviour and restrictive business practice, as well as consumer protection against deceptive advertising, the selling of low quality goods and services and unfavourable terms and conditions of contracts.

“During the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, we suspended our concentration away from some areas of our mandate so that we could focus on restrictive business practice and consumer protection particularly in relation to the situation as relation to COVID-19,” Ms Pule said. ENDS