What constitutes price gouging in Alberta during a pandemic?

Calgary — One Calgary business has been charged and complaints have been made against hundreds of others, but what actually constitutes price gouging in Alberta during a pandemic?

This may come as a surprise to some, but there isn't an actual formula that lays out when or how much prices can be increased before crossing into gouging territory.

Instead, members of the Service Alberta consumer investigations unit (CIU) use "common sense" to decide whether a warning letter or further enforcement is needed, said provincial director Brad Siddell.

Analysts with CIU began building a database of average prices for common items when health measures were first put in place in early March and they now use that — updating it daily — said Siddell, to look into complaints.

Once a complaint of price gouging is received, investigators have a number of options.

Usually it will start with some checks, either online or in-person, to see what price is being charged, which is compared to the list. They'll also check with similar retailers to see what they're charging.

From there, the investigation can escalate to anything from sending out a warning to issuing an official order.

"There is no line, it's very sort of open-ended," said Siddell. "What we've done is established a bit of an internal policy just for COVID-19. If the price is double then that's a red flag and we contact the business and we say, 'look, the price is double the norm, which is a 100 per cent increase, do something about it.'"

That's usually enough to get a business to comply, but if not, things can be escalated.

Siddell said it can ultimately result in an order being given to a business owner to change pricing. Failure to do so, he said, will result in a charge of failing to follow the order, rather than price gouging.

A northeast Calgary business was charged Friday, the same day officials said there have been 458 complaints made to Service Alberta, with 351 of those forwarded for further inspection or investigation.

Officials said an investigator went to CCA Logistics Ltd. (Newsway), in the 3400 block of 12th Street N.E. on April 1, where they say they found several pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) for sale at grossly inflated prices.

Examples included:

A conviction could result in fines of up to $300,000.

The fact there is no clear line when it comes to price gouging, said Siddell, means one will likely have to be drawn at some point going forward.

"One of the things we've learned from this experience is we're likely going to have to unpack the Consumer Protection Act and redefine some of these things," he said.

"Since COVID-19, there's areas like price gouging that has to have a little bit more specific definition so we can be a little more objective in identifying who's offending and who's not."