AMID an increase in online complaints about price gouging as the country responds to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, State Minister for Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green says only three complaints have been filed, so far, with the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC).

The CAC is the government agency established to inform, educate and empower consumers on protecting themselves in the marketplace.

Green disclosed this during an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Monday, days after announcing that price gouging regulations would be put in place to ensure the protection of consumers during periods of emergency or disaster.

As it stands, the 2005 Consumer Protection Act does not address price gouging, which suggests that the practice is not illegal in Jamaica.

As a result, Green said that the ministry is working to amend the legislation to plug the gap.

“In the interim, however, I would say to consumers — one, file the report. So, if they go and they notice that there has been an unexplained and unreasonable rise in the price of a product from a retailer, they should, if they have made that purchase nonetheless, send a copy of the receipt into the Consumer Affairs Commission, also indicating what the regular price would be. This way the Consumer Affairs Commission can still start the process of acting,” the minister mentioned.

Acknowledging that there is no specific regulation to address the issue, Green noted that the Act broadly speaks to unacceptable practices.

He added, too, that the CAC has developed a reputation in terms of being able to get businesses to comply where it sees unfair practices.

“Unfortunately, one of the challenges we have is that we haven’t seen a lot of reports. While I would encourage people to also use social media [to report], we want people to actually make reports to the CAC. My last check showed that we had only received three reports of price gouging and only one that we could say that we could reasonably act upon, because that report would contain the receipt, in terms of the prices of the product that was paid and also other supported information,” he told the Observer.

Complaints have increased online about retailers hiking the prices of products now considered to be essential as the Government moves to contain the spread of the virus locally.

Last week, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton said that the Government is prepared to take action to prevent price gouging in the wake of COVID-19.

“If we determine, as a Government, that there are persons out there who have decided to exploit the health threat to the population by price gouging or hoarding, the laws can be triggered to give protection for the greater good of society,” Tufton said at a stakeholders’ meeting at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James, last Friday.

On Monday, Green mentioned that the ministry’s legislative team is working to establish regulations that “would specifically make price gouging an illegal activity”.

He also said this would allow for an established definition for price gouging and would empower the CAC to investigate and bring action against retailers or manufacturers who are in breach.

“The thinking is definitely for it to be utilised in cases of emergencies. So it would be triggered by an emergency, whether it be a hurricane or an epidemic, and in the law we would clearly put what would be triggering agents,” the minister said.

He said a draft of the amendments is to be prepared by next week.

“I’m going to have discussions with the attorney general’s chambers and the Ministry of Justice to see if we can quickly move to putting that in place, hopefully over the next two to three weeks, maximum,” he said.