美国婴儿奶粉“一罐难求”，家长怒斥商家哄抬价格 | 双语精选

译介 2023-06-20

收录于合集 #双语精选 46个

由于安全问题、供应链、行业垄断、市场萎靡等一系列原因，美国婴儿配方奶粉出现严重短缺。就在家长为孩子的“口粮”着急之时，美国各大网购平台上竟有大量商家开始哄抬奶粉价格。在家长进行投诉后，甚至有商家放话：“你无权干涉我的生意。”

究竟是怎么一回事？网购平台对此的回应又如何？我们一起看文章。

Parents accuse online sellers of price gouging on baby formula

家长指责网上卖家哄抬婴儿配方奶粉价格

Parents struggling to find baby formula amid a nationwide shortage are reporting that price gougers are selling bottles and cans marked up by as much as 300 percent or more on websites like eBay, OfferUp, Amazon and Craigslist, and inside Facebook communities. But in many cases, they’re finding that the platforms are doing little to punish the predatory sellers.

在全国婴儿配方奶粉短缺的情况下，努力寻找婴儿配方奶粉的家长举报价格哄抬者正在eBay、OfferUp、亚马逊和Craigslist等网站以及Facebook社区上以三倍甚至更贵的标价出售瓶装及罐装奶粉。但在许多情况下，他们发现平台在处罚肆意抬价的卖家方面几乎不作为。

“If you go onto eBay, there is page after page after page of people selling formula for double, triple, quadruple what it costs in stores,” said 42-year-old Lisa Davis, a mother of five from Lehi, Utah, who supplements her 14-month-old son’s diet with formula due to his small size, as strictly advised by his pediatrician. Davis estimates that she has flagged around 20 predatory formula listings to eBay. “But eBay does nothing about it.”

“如果你登录eBay网站，页面上到处都在以实体店两倍、三倍、四倍的价格出售奶粉。”来自犹他州Lehi市42岁的丽莎·戴维斯（Lisa Davis）说，她是五个孩子的母亲，由于她14个月大的儿子体型较小，她按照儿科医生的严格建议，用配方奶粉补充营养。戴维斯大概算了一下，她向eBay平台反馈了20种价格遭哄抬的婴儿配方奶粉，“但是eBay什么也没做”。

In one case, she found a single 12.4-ounce can of Enfamil Gentlease listed for $60 before shipping — more than triple what Target, Walgreens and other out-of-stock stores are currently charging. She informed the seller that she had reported it to eBay for its inflated price, which only elicited an angry response.

有一次，她发现一罐12.4盎司的美赞臣温和型奶粉（Enfamil Gentlease）的零售价为60美元（不含运费）——比塔吉特百货（Target）、连锁药店沃尔格林（Walgreens）和其他缺货商店目前的售价高出三倍多。她告诉卖家，她已经针对其虚高的价格向eBay举报，而此举仅引起了卖家的怒怼。

“[G]et over it,” the seller wrote back in an exchange reviewed by NBC News. “it is not illegal u may dislike but u have NO right to interfere in my business. people do it constantly.”

“算了吧，”NBC看到卖家的回复写道，“这不违法，你可以不喜欢，但你无权干涉我的生意。人们经常这样做。”

State attorneys general and elected officials have raised concerns about the online price gouging of baby formula in recent days. In a May 13 letter that Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, both Connecticut Democrats, sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan, they warned that they were aware of price gouging and scams targeting parents specifically on sites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace.

最近几天，各州检察长和民选官员对网上哄抬婴儿配方奶粉价格的行为表示关注。康涅狄格州民主党众议员罗莎·德劳罗（Rosa DeLauro）和参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔（Richard Blumenthal）在5月13日写给美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）主席莉娜·汗（Lina Khan）的信中警告说，他们知道在eBay和Facebook Marketplace等网站上存在专门针对家长的哄抬物价和欺诈行为。

But the scope of such price gouging is hard to gauge; parents with newborns say they typically don’t have the time to file complaints with government agencies, and the tech companies they are complaining to say they don’t have data to share. A review of more than 100 seemingly price-gouged formula listings across these websites and conversations with 13 parents in states across the country reveal that the problem has been growing online.

但这种哄抬物价的范围很难衡量；有新生儿的家长说他们通常没有时间向政府机构投诉，而收到家长投诉的科技公司说他们没有数据可共享。对超过100种在这些网站疑遭价格哄抬的配方奶粉的调查以及与全美各州13位家长进行的谈话显示，卖家哄抬奶粉价格问题在网上愈演愈烈。

“People don’t realize how bad this is right now,” Davis said, “or how little sites like eBay seem to care.”

“人们没有意识到现在的情况有多糟糕，”戴维斯说，“也没意识到，像eBay这样的网站对此有多冷漠。”

That’s partly because there is still no federal law prohibiting price gouging, and many state laws do not cover formula sales, noted Teresa Murray, the consumer watchdog director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. And while many independent-seller platforms do have policies explicitly banning this practice, the companies often aren’t able to adequately enforce them, she added.

美国公共利益研究组织的消费者监督办公室主管特雷莎·默里（Teresa Murray）指出，部分原因是因为美国目前还没有禁止哄抬物价的联邦法律，并且许多州的法律未涉及婴儿配方奶粉的销售。她补充说，虽然许多独立卖家平台对这种做法确有明令禁止，但这些公司往往没能充分执行这些政策。

“The reality is that they may not have the ability to police in real-time what’s being put up for sale on their websites,” she said. Parents, meanwhile, are left paying the price.

“现实是，他们可能没有能力对网站上的销售情况进行实时监督。”她说。同时，家长们却要为此买单。

While eBay’s published policies prohibit “inflating the price of goods in response to an emergency or disaster” and require “items that are considered essential” to be “offered at a reasonable price,” Davis said several listings she flagged remain active while others have sold out. A spokesperson for eBay, Scott Overland, said that the company has been working to address price gouging through the formula crisis.

虽然eBay公布的政策禁止“为应对紧急情况或灾难而抬高商品价格”，并要求以“合理的价格提供”“被认为是必要的物品”，但戴维斯说，在其他奶粉已经售罄的情形下，她关注的几种奶粉仍然存在哄抬价格的情况。eBay的发言人斯科特·欧弗兰（Scott Overland）说，公司一直在努力通过婴儿奶粉配方危机解决哄抬物价问题。

“We work with manufacturers and government officials to identify items at risk of price gouging and have a price-gouging reporting tool available to our entire community to report any potential violations of our policy,” he said. “Due to the ongoing shortage, we are stepping up our manual review of listings to protect against price gouging of baby formula.”

“我们与制造商和政府官员合作，以确定哪些商品存在哄抬物价的风险，而且我们有一个哄抬物价举报工具，可以供整个eBay社区举报任何可能违反我们政策的行为。”他说：“由于奶粉的持续短缺，我们正在加强对商品的人工审查，以防止婴儿配方奶粉的价格哄抬。”

今日词汇

baby formula 婴儿配方奶粉

predatory /ˈpredət(ə)ri/ adj. （动物）捕食性的；掠夺性的，弱肉强食的

pediatrician /ˌpiːdiə'trɪʃn/ n. 儿科医生（英音写作paediatrician）

out-of-stock adj. 缺货的；脱销的

price gouging /ɡaʊdʒɪŋ/ 哄抬价格

police v. 监督，管制

inflate price 抬高价格

翻译讨论

But in many cases, they’re finding that the platforms are doing little to punish the predatory sellers.

predatory原指“掠夺性的”，这里要怎么翻译好呢？