South Africa Orders Overcharging Hardware Store To Refund Customers

South African Competition Tribunal on Friday, April 24, ordered Main Hardware to refund all its customers for overcharging them on the sale of surgical gloves during lockdown.

“The Tribunal says where such customers cannot be traced, the refundable amount will be donated to the Solidarity Fund established by President Ramaphosa in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Competition Tribunal communications officer Gillian de Gouveia.

The Tribunal investigated the hardware after receiving complaints from customers. They concluded that the hardware’s March 2020 increase in the mark up was unreasonable and amounted to an abuse of dominance.

“Main Hardware based in central Johannesburg must also reduce its mark-up on surgical gloves to 10 percent during the remainder of the pandemic period and for six month thereafter,” said the officer.

This is the second case of the Tribunal wiping errant retailers into line

Full Content: News Ghana

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