By Spencer Soper and Gerald Porter Jr.
Around the world, governments are sounding alarms about price gouging and threatening crackdowns as the coronavirus outbreak spreads fear and a surge in demand for hand sanitizers and face masks.
But it’s unlikely that vendors will stop demanding $400 for a two-pack of 2-ounce bottles of Purell, which usually goes for $10, anytime soon. The anti-gouging laws on the books are tricky to enforce when demand suddenly outstrips supply.
Sometimes even just defining a violation is difficult, said Geoffrey Rapp, a law professor at the University of Toledo who studies the phenomenon.
“While there’s an instinctive reaction that prices shouldn’t swing wildly after a major natural event, man-made disaster or something like the current coronavirus scare,” he said, “there’s a blurry line between responses to the natural movement of supply and demand and those that should truly be prohibited.”
Largely Symbolic
Most U.S. states have laws targeting essentials like fuel and food during emergencies. They are largely symbolic, Rapp said, because prices often jump before an emergency is declared.
