China airfare rises may be illegal
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Chinese consumer-rights groups and legal scholars have urged authorities to investigate a collective price hike by major airlines that they suspect may be in violation of the anti-monopoly law.
According to a Xinhua report, the Beijing Consumers’ Association, the Beijing Consumer Protection Law Society, the Beijing Society on Industry and Business Administration, as well as Renmin University’s Civil and Commercial Laws Research Center, have issued a joint statement expressing their concern over the controversial price increases.
The pricing system approved by China’s civil aviation authority last week allowed airlines to raise ticket prices against the government’s benchmark price. However the group claims that the collective price increases break fair market competition and infringes consumer rights.
“The pricing mechanism agreed by domestic airliners has led to an average rise of 10% in price of air tickets,” a statement by the group was reported saying. “The price hike may bring profits at the price of consumer rights in the short run, but it will eventually harm the healthy development of the civil aviation industry,” the statement added.
Consumers suspect the airlines are making the collective price hikes in an attempt to recoup widespread losses of 2008, when China’s major airlines struggled with high fuel prices and a slump in demand.
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