Is it illegal to increase the price of vegetables because of the epidemic?

it is illegal for prices to rise beyond the standard during the epidemic.

On February 1st, the Guiding Opinions on Investigating and Handling Illegal Acts of Driving Up Prices during the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia Epidemic in novel coronavirus did not stipulate the price difference between purchase and sale, but only stipulated that "the operator sells the same kind of goods, which exceeds the price difference rate of the last actual transaction before January 19th (including that day)" or "it did not actually sell before the epidemic". Or if the actual transaction situation can't be verified before January 19, and the operator substantially increases the price for external sales on the basis of the purchase cost, and still fails to correct it immediately after being warned by the market supervision department, it can be considered as price gouging.

in any of the following circumstances, the business operator commits an illegal act of driving up prices as stipulated by law.

(1) business operators who produce epidemic prevention supplies and raw materials for epidemic prevention supplies fail to put the produced products on the market in time and continue to hoard them after being warned by the market supervision department;

(2) wholesale operators fail to timely transfer epidemic prevention supplies and commodities for people's livelihood to consumer terminals and continue to hoard them after being warned by the market supervision department;

(3) The retail chain operators fail to sell the relevant commodities to the outside world in time, except for keeping necessary stocks for business continuity, and continue to hoard them after being warned by the market supervision department.

the operators of production and wholesale links can prove that they are in the situations of items (1) and (2) of this article, and they need to reserve or plan to allocate materials for epidemic prevention according to the requirements of the government or relevant government departments, which does not constitute an illegal act of driving up prices.

for the operators in the retail field, if the market supervision department has uniformly warned the operators not to hoard illegally through announcements, issuing reminders, etc., it is deemed that the warning procedures have been fulfilled according to law, and the warnings can be stopped, and the operators with hoarding behavior can be directly identified as illegal acts of driving up prices.

under any of the following circumstances, an operator may be deemed as an illegal act of driving up prices as stipulated by law.

(1) in the process of selling epidemic prevention supplies, tying other commodities by force, and raising the price of epidemic prevention supplies in disguise;

(2) The price of epidemic prevention articles or commodities for people's livelihood has not been raised, but the distribution cost has been greatly increased or other fees have been charged;

(3) where the business operator sells the same kind of goods, exceeding the price difference rate of the last actual transaction before January 19th (including that day, the same below);

(4) if the actual sales were not made before the outbreak, or the actual transaction situation could not be verified before January 19th, the operator substantially increased the price on the basis of the purchase cost and sold it to the outside world, but still failed to correct it immediately after being warned by the market supervision department.

if the business operator is in the situation of item (3) of this article, but has not caused actual harmful consequences, and is immediately corrected after being warned by the market supervision department, it may be given a lighter, mitigated or exempted punishment according to law.

the "substantial improvement" in item (4) of this article shall be determined by the market supervision department in consideration of the actual business conditions of the operators, the subjective malignancy and the social harm of illegal acts, and in combination with the actual situation.

Legal basis:

Provisions on Administrative Penalties for Price Violations

Article 5: If an operator violates the provisions of Article 14 of the Price Law, he fabricates and disseminates price increase information, maliciously hoards and uses other means to drive up prices, so as to push up commodity prices too high, or uses false or misleading price means to trick consumers or other operators into trading with him, he shall be ordered to make corrections, his illegal income shall be confiscated and his illegal income shall be imposed five times. If there is no illegal income, a fine of 5 thousand yuan to 5 thousand yuan shall be imposed; If the circumstances are serious, it shall be ordered to suspend business for rectification, or its business license shall be revoked by the administrative department for industry and commerce. Except as provided in the preceding paragraph, operators who collude with each other to manipulate market prices and damage the legitimate rights and interests of other operators or consumers shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of these Provisions.

if trade associations or other units organize operators to collude with each other to manipulate market prices, the operators shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs; Trade associations or other units may be fined up to 5, yuan. If the circumstances are serious, the registration and license shall be revoked by the registration administration organ according to law.