Australians were stung with some hugely inflated price hikes on whitegoods during the peak of the COVID-19 shutdown, consumer group CHOICE says.

CHOICE campaigns and media adviser Amy Pereira said they received a number of complaints.

Prices on fridges and freezers were among the top increases.

“We got a number of complaints from people all over the country reporting prices increases, asking why it was happening so we decided to look into it,” she told Mark Levy.

“The prices for things did increase particularly for high demand items like face masks, hand sanitiser and the infamous toilet paper.

“And then of course we have also found whitegoods, for example freezers and fridges, we saw some price increases there when we investigated.

“We saw prices increases in March, we saw those prices increase by up to 63 per cent.”

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