Commission to take legal action

THE Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) in implementing the prices regulation during this year’s Covid-19 peak issued over 200 infringement notices with half still yet to pay their fines.
“The main offence was businesses failing to obtain approval from the ICCC to increase prices beyond five per cent of goods listed under the regulation,” ICCC chief executive officer Paulus Ain said.
He said half of the businesses who were issued notices complied and paid either K5,000 for first time offence or K10,000 for repeated offences.
“The ICCC is now taking steps to prosecute these businesses for failing to pay the fine. Failure to pay the fine amounts to a breach of the emergency (General provisions Covid-19) Act 2020,” he said.
The ICCC’s involvement during the state of emergency related to its mandate to conduct price surveillance exercises to protect consumers of certain goods and services and ensure that those goods and services were offered to consumers within allowable parameters.