*Pix above: Market traders
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, has given a month’s notice to traders and other market stakeholders involved in exploitative pricing to crash the prices of goods.
The Executive Vice-Chairman of the FCCPC, Mr. Tunji Bello, gave the order at a one-day stakeholders’ engagement on exploitative pricing yesterday in Abuja.
According to Bello, the commission will begin enforcement after the expiration of the notice.
He said the meeting was to address the growing trend of unreasonable pricing of consumer goods and services and unwholesome practices of market associations.
Bello said: “The issue of critical national importance of the day is the growing trend of unreasonable pricing of consumer goods and services across the country, and the unwholesome practice of market associations engaged in price fixing.
‘’As a responsive organization, we have carried out discreet market surveys extensively across the country in the past few weeks. Our findings are quite disturbing, to put it mildly. Therefore, our gathering here today (yesterday) is to underscore the gravity of the situation and the urgency of the need to work together to check this unwholesome development.
“As a statutory body whose mandate is to cater to consumer rights, we cannot allow this unhealthy trend to continue. To be sure, we quite recognize that an unfavourable exchange rate has negatively impacted the cost of production in local currency. However, the margin in pricing goods and services is unreasonable or excessive in a few cases.
‘’We have observed, for instance, that the margin in the prices of imported goods are very disproportionate in many cases; and in the case of locally produced goods, excessively inflated. This is an untenable situation, particularly in the retail segment, where we have identified patterns of price fixing perpetrated by some market associations, price gouging, and other anti-consumer practices.
‘’For proper understanding, price fixing refers to an unholy agreement between competing businesses to set prices at a certain level. This can be done either explicitly or implicitly, and it prevents healthy competition that is otherwise expected to drive prices down and improve quality.
‘’Price gouging on the other hand occurs when sellers significantly increase the price of goods or services during a crisis or a period of economic challenge. This practice takes undue advantage of consumers.///
