Costly

A new code of conduct on pricing items and services in public transport areas was published in draft form for public comment on the website of the Jiangsu Administration of Commodity Prices on March 21. The move is a bid to curb price manipulation in airports, bus stations and other places where travelers have no choice but to buy ordinary goods like bottles of water or tissues at outrageously expensive prices. Liu Xu, a researcher at the Intellectual Property and Competition Law Research Center at Tongji University, praised the regulation but expressed concerns that the implementation might not match the theory, unless a detailed list of problems and punishments is supplied and implemented by local authorities.