Excessive Pricing during COVID-19 crisis in the EU: An Empirical Inquiry
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Excessive Pricing during COVID-19 crisis in the EU: An Empirical Inquiry. / Kianzad, Behrang.
In: Concurrences, Vol. 2021, No. 1, 98670, 2021, p. 250-259.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Excessive Pricing during COVID-19 crisis in the EU: An Empirical Inquiry
AU - Kianzad, Behrang
N1 - Conference code: 5
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The COVID-19 crisis noted many reports of dramatic price increases of essential items such as face masks, hand sanitisers and disinfectants. Already in March 2020 the Competition Authorities in Europe, by way of a joint statement by European Competition Network and individual public announcements, cautioned against price gouging practices and re-affirmed their commitment to pursue such practices vigorously.In order to provide a bird-eye view of such practices around EU, and Competition Law responses, an inquiry was sent to all European Competition Authorities in June 2020. The inquiry sought to gather data on number of excessive pricing/price gouging complaints received by the authorities during the pandemic, whether investigations were opened/pending, and what general position assumed in regard to excessive pricing practices during the pandemic.A total of 27 competition authorities were contacted, whereof 23 responded to the inquiry, providing a bird-eye view, as far as confidentiality rules allowed. The resulting picture was indeed a highly divergent one, with some countries noting several hundred and in some instances several thousands complaints, with other countries receiving few or none. Many authorities had indeed embarked on investigations and monitoring practices. Other countries had introduced maximum pricing laws in regards to essential items. The authorities did further provide some general comments in regards to their position on excessive pricing both in general and during a pandemic such as the COVID-19 crisis.The analysis of the study further discusses the normative law and economics conditions of excessive pricing/price gouging during a pandemic with a view to temporary dominance, market shares and assessment benchmarks.
AB - The COVID-19 crisis noted many reports of dramatic price increases of essential items such as face masks, hand sanitisers and disinfectants. Already in March 2020 the Competition Authorities in Europe, by way of a joint statement by European Competition Network and individual public announcements, cautioned against price gouging practices and re-affirmed their commitment to pursue such practices vigorously.In order to provide a bird-eye view of such practices around EU, and Competition Law responses, an inquiry was sent to all European Competition Authorities in June 2020. The inquiry sought to gather data on number of excessive pricing/price gouging complaints received by the authorities during the pandemic, whether investigations were opened/pending, and what general position assumed in regard to excessive pricing practices during the pandemic.A total of 27 competition authorities were contacted, whereof 23 responded to the inquiry, providing a bird-eye view, as far as confidentiality rules allowed. The resulting picture was indeed a highly divergent one, with some countries noting several hundred and in some instances several thousands complaints, with other countries receiving few or none. Many authorities had indeed embarked on investigations and monitoring practices. Other countries had introduced maximum pricing laws in regards to essential items. The authorities did further provide some general comments in regards to their position on excessive pricing both in general and during a pandemic such as the COVID-19 crisis.The analysis of the study further discusses the normative law and economics conditions of excessive pricing/price gouging during a pandemic with a view to temporary dominance, market shares and assessment benchmarks.
KW - Faculty of Law
KW - Excessive Prices
KW - Excessive pricing
KW - COVID-19
KW - Competition Law
KW - Law and Economcis
KW - price gouging
KW - European Union
KW - European Commission
M3 - Journal article
VL - 2021
SP - 250
EP - 259
JO - Concurrences
JF - Concurrences
SN - 1773-9578
IS - 1
M1 - 98670
T2 - Annual conference of the French Association of Law and Economics
Y2 - 15 October 2020 through 16 October 2020
ER -
ID: 259046184