Australian Watchdog Concerned With COVID Testing Price Gouges

Individual rapid antigen tests are selling for $100 each with substantially more complaints made about pharmacists than any other kind of retailer, reported The Daily Mail.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has compiled a list of complaints about price gouging for home testing kits.

From Christmas Day to January 7, maximum prices surged from just $14 to $100. This was well above the wholesale costs of $3.95 to $11.45 for one test.

When it came to reported rip offs, pharmacists had the most complaints at 879 during the two-and-a-half week period covering December 25 to January 12.

This was followed by 283 for supermarkets, tobacconists and convenience stores and 272 for petrol stations.

In some cases, retailers are even refusing to give customers a receipt to hide their price gouging.

ACCC chair Rod Sims said retailers selling RATs at a huge mark-up needed to explain themselves.

‘We are asking those businesses to urgently explain the prices they are charging,’ he said.

‘In the middle of a significant outbreak of Covid-19 in a pandemic, the excessive pricing of rapid antigen tests required to diagnose the illness and protect other members of the public, is of significant concern to the ACCC.’

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