Question

Price gouging is a phenomenon that occurs when a seller increases the price of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair, for example, during a natural disaster.

Should there be laws against price gouging? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Many times when the demand of various goods in the market is at peak but the supplies are limited, the suppliers increase the price of the goods unfairly which make it difficult for the customers to buy the goods and this unfair practice of the suppliers is known as price gouging.
Price gouging is something that violates the rights of the consumer, so every government should have proper laws that prohibit the suppliers from charging high prices for the products that consumers purchase. Many countries have already made laws against the suppliers doing price gouging, and the government of many countries have fixed maximum limit to increase the prices of the goods.
Many countries have made strict punishment against the supplier doing price gouging especially at the time of some natural disaster or pandemic as these kinds of situations already create lots of troubles and no supplier should have the right to make these difficult times even more difficult for the consumers for their own benefit.
So, anti-gouging laws are very important as it is unfair for any customer to pay for a good more than its actual price. Price gouging also disturbs the whole mechanism of the market as the demand of goods for which the suppliers are charging unnecessarily high prices goes down as customers feel dissatisfied after buying the goods at high prices especially at the time of any country’s emergency.