City set to tackle price gouging during expo

The Shanghai government will launch price control measures involving local hotels, online car hailing and public parking lots during the China International Import Expo in a bid to stymie the price gouging of visitors.

According to the government announcement, the price intervention will be carried out between October 26 and November 14.

During this period, the prices of hotel rooms should never exceed the highest price of similar rooms between October 1 and November 30 last year. Newly opened hotels should set their prices by referencing those of hotels of the same standard and in similar areas.

Local hotels are also told they need to report their prices to related authorities.

For local online car-hailing service providers, the prices of different car types should never surpass those of the day before the controls take effect. These companies should also not add new service items to charge passengers.

Moreover, public parking lots in the six districts neighboring the National Exhibition and Convention Center — Qingpu, Minhang, Changning, Jiading, Putuo and Songjiang — should not charge prices higher than what they reported to authorities before the intervention.

Related city or district-level departments should conduct checks on local hotels and transport providers — and those who refuse to obey the price control and violate the market price order will be punished.

Individuals and organizations can report rule breakers by calling the price hotline at 12358, or by going online to http://12358.ndrc.gov.cn.

Meanwhile, media registration for the upcoming expo was opened yesterday as well, as preparations for the event are proceeding smoothly.

Registration is open until September 15 and media services can register online at media.ciie.org, according to the CIIE news center.

Further information for journalist approvals will be released on www.ciie.org.

The CIIE will be held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10. So far, more than 160,000 agents from over 80,000 businesses have registered to attend the international trade event.

China has been the world’s second largest importer of goods for nine consecutive years and accounted for 10.2 percent of global imports last year. Chinese authorities expect the country to import goods worth US$24 trillion in the next 15 years.

As an upgrading consumption sector reshapes China’s economic and trade structure, the CIIE is expected to give new impetus to such a transition and make China’s market more accessible than ever.