The Fiji Commerce Commission (FCC) has fined 23 traders after discovering that customers were being overcharged, prices of items were not displayed or when supplies were limited and conditional selling was being practiced.

Commission chief executive officer Bobby Maharaj has disclosed that $42,100 in spot fines have been imposed on such traders while another eight are being investigated.

Forty-two complaints had been received by the Commission up until Monday after Tropical Cyclone Winston hit.

“FCC is taking the offence of not marking or displaying prices seriously as not complying with this requirement, traders can sell items at any price and they can gain unreasonable profit on that. Further, the traders can sell items at different prices and this discriminates customers’ rights,” Mr Maharaj said.

Following the devastation in the wake of Cyclone Winston, a number of traders were noted to have sharply increased their prices on basic food items, on hardware and items needed for families to recover from the devastation.

Government has also condemned such practices.

In Tavua, a hardware company was noted to have been selling roofing items three times more than the normal price.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

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