Shopee to remove overpriced face masks from online store

Intensifying its surveillance, monitoring, and enforcement efforts, the DTI has reached out to various online shopping companies to stop the selling of overpriced masks to consumers. Shopee was the first to heed DTI’s request. (File photo: katie chao and ben muessig/Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

MANILA — Online shopping company, Shopee has committed to working closely with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to remove all overpriced offers of N95 and N88 masks from its platform, an official said on Friday.

“We commend Shopee for immediately heeding our call. The cooperation of online shopping companies is very important in preventing unscrupulous individuals from taking advantage of consumers for their own profit,” DTI-Consumer Protection Group (CPG) Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said in a statement.

Intensifying its surveillance, monitoring, and enforcement efforts, the DTI has reached out to various online shopping companies to stop the selling of overpriced masks to consumers. Shopee was the first to heed DTI’s request.

Even prior to the talk with online shopping companies, Shopee is already monitoring sellers of overpriced masks in its e-Commerce platform to ensure that their prices are within the price range set by the Department of Health (DOH).

The DTI is calling on the rest of the online shopping companies to follow suit.

With confirmed cases of a novel coronavirus in the country, consumer demand rose for N95 and N88 masks.

Having low to no stocks of masks in physical retail stores, e-commerce platforms have become the alternative for consumers, making the cooperation between government and online retailers more crucial in ensuring public access to reasonably-priced basic essential medical supplies in the market. (PR)