10 2GM Friday March 6 2020 | the times
News
Retailers have been warned that they
face prosecution if they exploit corona-
virus fears to raise prices.
The Competition and Markets
Authority (CMA) urged suppliers to act
responsibly and said that it was moni-
toring pricing practices amid shortages
of hand sanitisers and face masks.
The watchdog said it would consider
any evidence that companies might
have broken competition or consumer
protection law by charging excessive
Police plans for a worst-case coronavi-
rus scenario address the threat of theft
and looting and include cancelling
training days for armed officers to coun-
ter shortages.
A plan informed by no-deal Brexit
preparations would involve officers
securing key food and fuel depots in the
case of any widespread panic, sources
said. Firearms officers, who train for
two to three days every ten weeks,
would have all their courses postponed.
In the event of severe staff shortages,For sale online
Facebook marketplace One 50ml
bottle of Enliven hand sanitiser: £50.
Three home-made bottles of aloe
vera and vodka “hand sanitiser”: £Amazon marketplace One 600ml
bottle of Defendol “hospital grade”
antibacterial hand gel: £149.99.
N95 particulate “flat fold” face mask
respirator: £19.eBay One three-quarters full 200ml
bottle of Tesco antibacterial hand
gel: Sold for £26.what the green liquid was made from,
the seller said: “It’s hand sanitiser [to]
protect from germs. My mate made it.”
Upon further inquiries, they said it was
made out of aloe vera and vodka.
Some on eBay were auctioning par-
tially used bottles of hand sanitiser.
After 21 bids, one vendor managed to
sell a “three quarters” full bottle of
Tesco antibacterial gel for £26.
A source in the consumer goods
industry told The Times that produc-
tion of hand gels was being ramped up
to “maximum capacity” and that deliv-
eries were still being made to stores. But
he said that the problem was that
almost as soon as stores put out new
supplies, they were being bought.
“Gels are selling out within ten min-
utes of going on shelves,” he said. “Of
course companies want to match
supply to demand but they have hit
unprecedented demand.”
He advised shoppers to be patient
because supplies would continue to be
sent to stores over the coming days.
The British Retail Consortium said
disruption to supply chains had been
limited and availability remained good.
Amazon said it was monitoring its
store for “price gouging” and had
removed “tens of thousands” of offers
and had terminated accounts.
A spokesman for eBay said: “We do
not tolerate sellers exploiting other
users. We have filters to prevent the list-
ing of items at unreasonably inflated
prices, and if necessary we remove lis-
tings and take enforcement action.”Police ready
John Simpson Crime Correspondent
Chris Smyth Whitehall EditorNews Coronavirus
Sellers face prosecution for face
prices or making misleading claims. It is
also considering asking the govern-
ment to bring in price controls. Lord
Tyrie, chairman of the CMA, said: “We
will do whatever we can to act against
rip-offs and misleading claims, using
any or all of our tools. Where we can’t
act, we’ll advise government on further
steps they could take, if necessary.”
The CMA could ultimately fine
retailers that are persistent offenders. If
they refuse to pay the fine, they could be
taken to court.
Supermarkets continued to experi-
ence increased demand for everydaystaples such as pasta and rice, and
cleaning products, although no stores
visited by The Times in London had run
out of any supplies other than hand
sanitiser. All other food and drink
appeared in plentiful supply.
Some stores did appear to be running
low on paracetamol. More than half of
paracetamol is made in China although
there is no evidence that supplies are
under threat and the coronavirus out-
break in that country appears to be
coming under control.
Boris Johnson tried to reassure shop-
pers that food would not run out. Theprime minister said that he had faith in
the public’s ability to see the “balance of
risk” and hoped they would carry on
with “business as usual”. On ITV’s This
Morning, he was asked if he could guar-
antee Britons would still be able to get
food, and replied: “Yes.”
The consumer watchdog’s interven-
tion came as third-party sellers on
online marketplaces, such as Amazon
and eBay, exploited shortages to sell
sanitisers and face masks at inflated
prices.
Amazon said sellers using its market-
place must comply with its fair price
policy. But yesterday bottles of antibac-
terial gel were still being sold on the
website for up to £149.99. The most
expensive bottle on eBay was £29.
and the seller’s profile said that it had
sold more than 500 so far.
The first product that appears on
Amazon after searching for “hand sani-
tiser” is a 50ml bottle of ethanol gel
spray at £7.48 but the delivery date is not
until March 23 at the earliest.
Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of
the CMA, said that its rules also applied
to the public if they resold goods.
However, many people appear to be
selling products at inflated prices. One
man from London was offering a 50ml
bottle of Enliven hand sanitiser on
Facebook marketplace for £50. Another
user was selling 50ml bottles of “home-
made” hand sanitiser at £3.50 a time or
three for £10. When The Times inquiredAndrew Ellson
Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Answered
The top
searches on
- What is
coronavirus?
- How many people
has it killed?
- What are the
symptoms? - How did it start?
Coronavirus, technically, is a name
for a group of viruses. When
magnified, they are round with spiky
proteins coming off them — looking
a bit like a crown, or corona. Just as
“cat” is a name for a group of
different species, some of which you
would happily stroke and some of
which you would rather not, the
same is true for coronavirus. Some
species of the virus cause the
common cold. One caused the Sars
outbreak of 2002-03, which had a
death rate of about 10 per cent. The
latest coronavirus, called Covid-19,
caused this outbreak.The number of confirmed fatalities
stands at more than 3,200, from an
estimated 90,689 infections. All but
166 of those deaths were in China.The first phase of the disease is the
incubation period, which can last
from two days to two weeks. People
don’t feel sick, but may be
infectious. After that victims have a
fever and dry cough but not a runny
nose. Severe cases progress to
pneumonia, organ failure and death.The virus began in bats before
mutating to transmit to humans,
probably via an intermediate
species such as a pangolin, a scaly
anteater. Deadly viruses often come
from animals, particularly wild ones
we are unaccustomed to. In their
original hosts they are generally
relatively benign — a virus gains
nothing from the death of its host —
but in new species, where both they
and the host are unaccustomed to
each other, they can be a lot worse.