China Fines Wal-Mart, Carrefour Over Pricing

China's National Development and Reform Commission has fined Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Carrefour SA a combined 9.5 million yuan ($1.4 million) for deceptive pricing practices at a small number of stores around the country.

The economic commission will penalize 19 stores, charging them each 500,000 yuan for pricing fraud, according to a statement on its website.

The penalty comes as China's government battles inflation. China's consumer price index rose 4.9% in January, up from a gain of 4.6% in December.

Authorities called attention to the retail giants in late January, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, a peak shopping season. It alleged that stores forced consumers to pay higher prices for products than indicated on price tags and that they falsely portrayed the size of discounts, inflating them, by altering original pricing.

Wal-Mart, based in the U.S., said it wasn't able to specify how many of its stores in China are covered by the fines. Carrefour, based in France, couldn't be reached for comment.

The commission said the fine to the two companies is meant to improve business and to protect Chinese consumers. "We hope that the enterprises can better uphold the integrity of the commercial law and implement price regulations and price management," the agency said in its statement.

Carrefour and Wal-Mart, while they make up a small fraction of China's total retail outlets, are two of the biggest retailers in the country. Carrefour operates more than 180 hypermarkets in China and Wal-Mart owns more than 200 stores in the country.