Ten days after the deconfinement, the government has decided to cap the sale price of surgical masks at 95 cents per unit, as confirmed on Friday by the Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy Agnès Pannier-Runacher. At the microphone of Europe 1, François Carlier, general delegate of the CLCV Consumer Defense Association, welcomes this decision, but calls for a similar measure for masks for the general public.
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"It's a first step, it's very good," he explains. But, he adds at the outset, "on reusable masks, we could try to cap at a slightly cheaper price, because when you buy a five-euro mask reusable 5 times in tobacco shops, it's when even a price that seems a bit high to me. "
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Reusable masks too expensive for the most modest families
For François Carlier, a non-ceiling on the price of these masks could have consequences on health, in particular of the least privileged families. "For families with fairly limited incomes, if the masks are a little too expensive, they don't buy as much as they should," he worries. "And instead of wearing them for four hours, we wear them all day to save money. They are problematic uses for health, in my opinion, this is the main risk."
For these masks, no price framework for the moment therefore, but Agnès Pannier-Runacher assured that there would be "surveys every week" to make sure "that there is no drift of the margins ".