Friday, 22nd August 2008 - 16:10CET

Inspectors average 70 visits daily to retail outlets

Inspectors from the Consumer and Competition Division (CCD) of the Ministry of Finance carried out an average of 70 visits every day to retail outlets during the first six months of the year.

A spokesman said a total of 12,622 price monitoring visits were carried out. Their main purpose was to ensure that pricing indication regulations are observed.

Over 98 percent of outlets were found to be compliant. In addition, over 1,000 visits were made at vegetable hawkers and open air markets.

The CCD officials warn non-compliant shopkeepers of their legal obligations and only resort to action if non-compliance continues. Three cases are currently pending before the courts.

The spokesman said the aim of the division was to ensure there was fair competition in business and consumer rights were observed. He said that recent complaints by importers that parallel traders may not be observing labelling regulations on detergents were being followed-up.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

J. Callus (on 22/8/08)

Very good move yes... but how about the pastizzerias? Some are still with Lm pricing and the others have LM and EURO prices that do not match! To make things worse, the pastizzi are marked as 10c (old currency) and then they charge 25 euro cents instead of 23 euro cents. This abuse is the reason why the prices go up and not because of the introduction of the Euro as some people made us think! Perhaps the price control dept should provide currency converters to these pastizzerias.

josephine Cassar (on 22/8/08)

What about a big,well-renowned supermarket in Attard which does not charge the price shown on the product but what the computer gives at check-out. It is renowned for heftier prices than other groceries. It has been reported to the department but to no avail.

John grima (on 22/8/08)

Well it seems that a certain supermarket in naxxar Road is never visited as the pricing in their freezer section as well as in other areas is very confusing and certainly does not make clear the price of the products on sale. maybe they are afraid to tackle a big retailer and so they keep hounding the street hawkers.

apgrech (on 22/8/08)

That is great. Now can we have as many visit to restaurants by the Health Division?