Price watchdog issues Daru price gouging shops infringement notices

The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) has issued infringement notices to four shops in Daru for breaching the standard pricing measure set by ICCC.

The ICCC team from Port Moresby during their price surveillance operation this week in Western province, visited eight shops with four caught charging goods above the recommended price.

Team Leader of the surveillance team, Kenta Pora was tasked to ensure all shops met the regulated standard pricing without increasing the prices of declared items above 10%.

As part of its second phase of price scrutiny in the country, the ICCC team conducted its operations on the prices of declared items like rice, tin fish, sugar, frozen goods, and flour amongst others across the eight shops.

Mr Pora said four shops were issued with infringement notices for non-compliance and increasing their prices above 10 % without seeking approval from the ICCC.

He said during the inspection they noticed the four shops had no standard base price set, however, the ICCC used the shelf price of the selected items collected in those particular shops from 2023 as base price to issue the breach notice.

Mr Pora said while some shops have increased their prices of goods, ICCC has noticed that other shopping centers have maintained their prices at a reasonable level.

"If they want to increase their prices, they must seek approval from ICCC prior to increasing their prices", he said.

"This exercise is an indefinite exercise, we will continue to do that so we encourage the shop owners to comply with the measures that we have given them".

"The fine is K10, 000 but they have the right to appeal to ICCC if they feel that they have somethings to justify".

He pointed out that tin fish was the main food item that saw an increase in price.

Meanwhile, those four shops served with infringement notices have been warned to settle their fines of K10,000 respectively within 14 days.

Mr Pora said failure to comply would result in court proceedings for breaching Price Measure No.4.

He further added that shops intending to increase their prices must submit their application to ICCC for consideration.