Trade Me has made a U-turn today on its policy not to regulate price gouging amid the coronavirus epidemic.
The online auction site released a statement today saying it would restrict the price of items related to a disaster or emergency on its website.
This comes two weeks after 1 NEWS approached Trade Me about the price gouging of items such as face masks and hand sanitisers on its site.
Trade Me’s head of marketplace Lisa Stewart said at the time they wouldn’t be interfering in price gouging.
"We know that some sellers are attempting to make money from this event and are charging high prices for items like sanitiser and face masks while stores across the country run low or sell out.
"We understand that this behaviour isn't everyone's cup of tea but we don't regulate the prices of items on our site.
"At the end of the day, these are trades between a willing buyer and a willing seller and the prices are simply market forces at work."
The company now says they will be introducing measures “to protect our users from exploitative pricing during the Covid-19 outbreak and future unforeseen events”.
“This new policy is tricky for us to execute. We have over eight million items onsite at any one time so this will take some time. Our teams will be working hard to enforce this new policy over the next few days.”
Trade Me now follows overseas companies such as eBay and Amazon which have released statements threatening to remove listings that are price gouging based on coronavirus panic.
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