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CFTC Cautions 11 Pharmacies On Over-charging Items

The Competition and Fair Trading Commission has given seven days to eleven pharmacy shops in Lilongwe and Blantyre to immediately cease and desist excessive pricing of sanitizers, masks and gloves as failure to do so will lead to the sanctioning of the shops.
A press statement from the company, the pharmacies did not adhere to the recent warning by the commission which stated that traders and companies should stop taking advantage of the global pandemic to promote certain products as cure and treatment for the corona virus.
 
The commission says following an inspection conducted recently, it has found that the pharmacies raised prices of products used in the prevention of the Coronavirus by margins ranging from 100% to 400%.
Six of the shops are in Lilongwe and five in Blantyre.
 
"We have given them a cease and desist order so that they should cease and desist on excessive pricing of the products within 7 days and if they don’t do that we will sanction the with the powers given to us," Kaphale indicated.
 
The commission on 18 March threatened of penalizing any trader or merchant found representing that their product can cure Corona virus as that would be violating the Competition and Fair Trading act and also the Consumer Protection Act.
 
The Competition and fair Trading Act and the Consumer Protection Act make it mandatory for enterprises to price their products in a manner that is fair and reasonable.
 
"We are continuing with our investigations, as long as shops pharmacies are conducting in a questionable behavior and are taking advantage of the situation, we will deal with them accordingly," said Kaphale.
 
The global pandemic of Corona virus continues to cause great worry amongst nations, the World Health Organization has put in place measures that are supposed to be followed in order to reduce chances of getting the COVID-19 corona virus among them is personal hygiene.
 
There is no registered Corona virus case in Malawi, and people are being encouraged to practice social distance, Frequent hand washing with soap and water and where these are not readily available use of alcohol based hand sanitizers is being encouraged.
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