Authorities strengthen market supervision amid pricing violations during COVID-19 outbreak

The Shanghai market watchdog has investigated and dealt with 192 cases of pricing violations related to vegetable sales over the past weeks during the lockdown to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

The violations included price gouging, selling at prices higher than the displayed price, and charging extra for products and services, said Peng Wenhao, deputy director of the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation, at a municipal press briefing on Wednesday.

She added that two outlets belonging to a chain supermarket and a chain restaurant that raised delivery fees by six to 10 times were fined and ordered to suspend their services earlier this month.

The investigations were part of the recent special operations conducted by the market watchdog to strengthen price supervision on daily necessities and epidemic prevention products.

The watchdog said that law enforcement workers have been deployed over 30,400 times and have issued nearly 39,000 warnings to various market entities during the latest COVID-19 outbreak.