The government has made a decision imposing an obligation on retailers to publish updated price lists daily on their websites, in files suitable for automatic processing and comparison, as well as to highlight the additional price of items.
These measures, commonly referred to as the Israeli model of price control, are expected to facilitate a quality comparison of prices among various retailers. They will allow for relatively simple development of price comparison applications, benefiting consumers.
The government measures pertain to food, beverages, cosmetics, cleaning products, toiletries, and household goods.
This is one of the mechanisms that protects consumers and introduces additional obligations for retailers in the supply chain, said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, presenting the Decision on Price List Publication and Additional Price Highlighting as a measure of direct price control in retail.
Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar stated that the purpose of this decision is to enable monitoring of the impact of price changes on essential products, timely identification of disruptions in market supply, and to strengthen the protection of citizens’ economic interests.
With the obligation to publish price lists, retailers will be required to publish updated price lists in digital form daily, in files suitable for automatic processing. They are also required to enable the use of software tools and automated programs for collecting real-time price data. This, says Šušnjar, will ensure quick and credible analysis of market movements.
The decision also introduces the obligation to highlight the additional price at points of sale. Every retailer engaged in retail trade must clearly, visibly, and legibly display the additional price applied to that product as of today, May 2, 2025, alongside the valid retail price.
The additional price must be displayed not only on shelves and products but also on all promotional materials.
The government decision will come into effect on May 15, 2025.
– By making this decision, we send a clear message to our citizens that the Government of the Republic of Croatia is fully committed to preserving their purchasing power, ensuring fair market conditions, and combating unjustified price increases of essential products. At the same time, this decision provides retailers with clearly defined business conditions, greater transparency in their relationship with consumers, and contributes to building trust in the market and its offerings. This will reduce the possibility of lamenting ‘we have increased prices, we have not increased prices,’ said Šušnjar, adding that it will be very clear in the future what is happening with prices.
He presented the latest data from the State Inspectorate, which indicates that 2,222 inspections have been conducted to check whether retailers comply with price limitation regulations, and that in 1,621 inspections, or 73 percent, no violations were found, while violations were found in 601 inspections, or 27 percent.
He believes that the government’s decisions yield results and will contribute to further reducing inflation, bringing it within desirable limits.
He does not believe that the tourist season could significantly impact inflation growth.
– We know that our market drastically increases during the season months. Some use this as an opportunity; the market is the market, and the state intervenes as much as it can. We are a market economy, but by making this decision, we are trying to correct some anomalies that were previously observed, so that they do not happen again, he said.
The government made a decision on Friday imposing an obligation on retailers to publish updated price lists daily on their websites, in files suitable for automatic processing and comparison, as well as to highlight the additional price of items.
These measures, known as the Israeli model of price control, are expected to enable better price comparison among various retailers. They will allow for relatively simple development of price comparison applications, benefiting consumers.
