31Offence to charge excessive rate for service

31 Offence to charge excessive rate for service (1) A person shall not: (a) supply or offer to supply any declared service at a higher rate than the maximum rate fixed in relation thereto under this Act; or

Price Exploitation Prevention Act 25 (b) without the approval of the Controller, supply or offer to supply any declared service upon terms and conditions different from the terms and conditions upon which a substantially identical service was supplied by him on the prescribed date if such supply or offer to supply upon such terms and conditions would result directly or indirectly: (i) in a greater rate than the maximum rate fixed in relation thereto being obtained; or (ii) in any other manner to the advantage of the supplier. Maximum penalty: If the offender is a natural person – 100 penalty units. If the offender is a body corporate – 500 penalty units. (2) In addition to any penalty that may be imposed for a breach of subsection (1), the court may order the defendant to refund to the person to whom the service was supplied the difference between the maximum rate so fixed and the rate at which the service was supplied. (3) For the purposes of this section, a person on whose behalf or at whose place of business any declared service is supplied at a higher rate than the maximum rate fixed in relation thereto under this Act, whether the service is supplied at such rate contrary to the instructions of such person or not, shall be deemed to have contravened the provisions of this section, unless the court is satisfied that the supply took place without his knowledge and that he has systematically used all due diligence to secure observance of this Act. (4) For the purposes of this section, a person shall be deemed to offer to supply a service at a particular rate if he notifies that rate as the rate proposed by him for the supply of that service by the publication of a list of rates or prices, by furnishing a quotation, or otherwise howsoever. (5) In this section, prescribed date, in relation to the supply or offer to supply any declared service, means such date as is declared to be the prescribed date in any order made with respect to that service under section 20.

Price Exploitation Prevention Act 26