Uzbekistan's Competition Development and Consumer Protection Committee has identified price overcharges in nearly 2,500 pharmacies. During the reporting period, about 686,000 cases were recorded where the maximum trade markup was exceeded by 10% to three times the allowed level.

As a result, consumers overpaid 21.1 billion UZS, which must be refunded. Price control is carried out through a digital monitoring system introduced under a presidential decree dated October 26, 2022. The system automatically detects violations without human intervention.

Since March 2026, control over reference prices has been strengthened: when the set level is exceeded in wholesale, the system automatically suspends invoice registration, preventing further price hikes in over 12,500 retail pharmacies.

In the first quarter of 2026, over 190 pharmacies were found to have about 110,500 violations totaling more than 1.4 billion UZS. Refunds for these cases are also underway.

The committee urges citizens to check permitted prices via the reference price registry and report violations to the hotline at 1159.

Source: kun.uz