As part of the Taskforce’s work, it
asked the public for information about businesses behaving
unfairly, for example retailers charging unjustifiably high
prices or making misleading claims about their products or
services.
Some of the highlights in the update include:
- As of 19 April, the CMA had received just under 21,000
COVID-19 related complaints, of which 14,000 have come via its
dedicated online form.
- The CMA has written to 187 firms accounting for over 2,500
complaints about large price rises for personal hygiene products,
such as hand sanitiser and food products.
- Complaints relating to cancellations and refunds now account
for 4 out of 5 complaints being received.
The number of businesses complained about is smaller than the
number of complaints. The 14,000 complaints received via the
CMA’s online form refer to just 6,000 individual businesses –
around one in a thousand of the private-sector businesses
operating in the UK.
The Taskforce is continuing to collect evidence, including about
unjustifiable price rises further up the supply chain. Next week
the CMA will set out further steps on how it intends to tackle
issues around cancellations and refunds. The majority of
businesses are behaving in a reasonable way at this time, but the
CMA will not hesitate to take enforcement action if there is
evidence that businesses have breached competition or consumer
protection law
View the full update
here.
For more information on the CMA’s work on COVID-19 visit
the CMA Coronavirus (COVID-19)
response. Further updates on the Taskforce’s work will be
published in due course.
