Price Gouging of Seasonal Goods in Bangladesh: An Ethical Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-581-2_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Price Gouging; Seasonal Goods; Bangladesh; Utilitarianism; Kantian Ethics

Abstract

In developing countries like Bangladesh, various types of inconsistencies in business are relatively high. There are certain codes of conduct and ethics that, at the same time, play important roles in improving business and ensuring consumer rights. Nevertheless, the trend of selling manufactured goods at exorbitant prices has become a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. Especially traders of seasonal fruits and agricultural products are involved in various immoral activities like hoarding goods and raising product prices beyond the level needed to get extra profit. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an ethical analysis of the various activities of seasonal traders, including creating artificial crises in the market through hoarding and abnormal rises in commodity prices to earn extra profit. The paper uses a mixed methodology. Firstly, through the questionnaire, surveys have been conducted among various people concerned, from producers to consumers of seasonal products, to collect views about the activities of seasonal product traders. Secondly, these activities and available survey data have been interpreted and analyzed in light of utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant’s ethics. The study concludes that, from a Utilitarian perspective, price gouging and hoarding reduce overall societal welfare by disproportionately harming low-income consumers and undermining long-term market trust. From a Kantian standpoint, such practices violate fundamental moral duties by treating consumers as mere means to profit, rather than as rational agents deserving respect. It also reveals that low consumer awareness, weak legal enforcement, and opportunistic trading behaviors contribute to the persistence of unethical pricing practices.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Md Najemul Alam
AU  - Mohiuddin Bhuiyan
AU  - Sazzad Hossain
AU  - Sharif Uddin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/30
TI  - Price Gouging of Seasonal Goods in Bangladesh: An Ethical Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Challenges and Trends in Arts and Social Sciences (ICCTASS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 43
EP  - 68
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-581-2_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-581-2_5
ID  - Alam2026
ER  -