Severe Penalties Anticipated for Retailers Who Violate Price Control Legislation

The Ministry of Economy submitted a proposal for the Law on Exceptional Price Control Measures for public discussion on Wednesday, which will be open for the next eight days. Among other things, it prescribes how retailers should inform consumers about products with limited prices, as well as the obligation to submit price lists to the Ministry and publish them on their websites in digital form. Severe penalties for violations of legal provisions are also prescribed.

According to the Ministry, the aim of this law proposal is to increase the level of consumer information regarding the measures of direct price control by ensuring the obligation of clear, visible, and legible information about the implemented direct price control measures. Furthermore, it aims to enhance the enforcement of legal provisions through inspection oversight and measures that competent inspectors can impose on retailers during inspection oversight, as well as to prescribe effective, proportional, and deterrent fines for violations of this law.

Retailers are required to inform about limited prices, which includes displaying appropriate notices such as visual identification labels, flyers, and posters listing products and services with limited prices. Additionally, a retailer is obliged to ensure separate sections for the sale of such products in a sales facility larger than 400 square meters, in accordance with regulations on food and general use items.

As one of the measures of direct price control, the proposal defines the determination of maximum product prices. It is worth noting that the government expanded the list of products with limited prices from 30 to 70 last week. As highlighted in the law proposal, the measure of determining the maximum price involves setting the maximum retail price, whereby it is not permitted to sell products and services above the maximum prescribed price, but selling below that price is allowed. Furthermore, the retailer is obliged to clearly, visibly, and legibly display the maximum price and must adhere to this in advertising.

The proposal also prescribes a measure for reverting prices to a certain level, which involves returning the maximum retail price to a level that was applicable during a specific time period, whereby it is not permitted to sell products and services above the maximum prescribed price, but selling below that price is allowed, as further stated in the law proposal.

It is also prescribed that the retailer must report valid price lists or tariffs to the Ministry of Economy and must also publish them on their websites in digital form, suitable for automatic processing, to inform customers, achieve greater transparency, and price competitiveness. The prices published in this manner must be updated by the retailer in real-time.

The law proposal stipulates, among other things, that the retailer is obliged to enable the use of software tools and automated programs that can collect price data via the internet through application programming interfaces or other technical solutions that allow real-time access to price data for comparison. These provisions will apply to retailers in the categories of supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount stores, and Cash & Carry, as listed in the law proposal.

Severe Penalties

The law proposal also defines what inspectors will control, and specific fines are determined. Thus, a retailer – legal entity will be fined between 3,000 and 30,000 euros if it fails to comply with the provisions of the law related to publication, display, advertising, or non-compliance with limited product prices, or if it does not report the price list and does not publish tariffs on its websites or does not enable the use of software tools for collecting price data.

The responsible person in the trading company will be fined between 1,000 and 4,000 euros, a trader-entrepreneur will be fined between 1,000 and 20,000 euros, and a trader-individual will be fined between 1,000 and 6,000 euros. Any property benefit arising from the violation of the law will be confiscated, as prescribed.