Turkey on Thursday banned “fake” sellers from posting online advertisements for cars and houses to prevent what authorities say has amounted to price gouging, the latest in a series of steps by the government to rein in consumer inflation.
(Bloomberg) — Turkey on Thursday banned “fake” sellers from posting online advertisements for cars and houses to prevent what authorities say has amounted to price gouging, the latest in a series of steps by the government to rein in consumer inflation.
The decision by the Ministry of Trade — published in the nation’s official gazette — requires classified ad websites to vet sellers and calls for fines of as much as 100,000 liras ($3,740) for violations.
The government has recently ruled that asking prices for used cars can’t be higher than the cost of new ones, after second-hand vehicle prices skyrocketed. Similarly, rents more than quadrupled in some areas of Istanbul — Turkey’s largest city — since the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, resulting in a housing crisis for millions of Turks whose income couldn’t keep up with those rises.
With inflation running at just below 50%, housing has become a politically divisive issue especially in urban centers such as Istanbul, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party wants to win municipalities in next year’s elections after losing them in a stinging defeat in 2019.
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