A BEIJING-BASED pharmacist with an eye for a money-making opportunity has fallen foul of regulators, having bumped up the price of face masks in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The enterprising, if ethically questionable, pharmacy owner was charging patients more than six-times the standard price for a box of 3M N95 masks, local media outlets reported.
The Beijing municipal market regulator fined the pharmcy $642,000 for the price gouging offence.
The regulator revealed it has investigated 31 cases of "price violation" in the last week, as part of a clamp-down on those looking to profit from consumer concerns about the outbreak.
Meanwhile a Shanghai pharmacy has been shutdown by the city's municipal market regulator after it was found to have been selling sub-standard face masks.
The store has also been ordered to refund customers who bought the faulty masks and dispose of unsold ones.
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