DAMEA: At EUR 908,500 fines to companies in February

The control process continues to have reached 908,500 euros in February, according to the Development Ministry’s website. At the same time, the Secretary-General for Trade, Sotiris Anagnostopoulos, told ERTNEWS that during this period the process of controlling the companies to which a fine was imposed is repeated in order to determine whether they had complied. “This check is not made instantaneously, but over time” as noted by the Secretary-General and added that “if a firm continues to retain the profit margins it had when it accepted the fine, apparently the infringement is repeated, so the fine is repeated and this time it is four times the profit it made.” There are such examples of recurrence, where the fines have been quadrupled, he added, and supplemented that “the companies to which the fine is imposed, know exactly that it is very difficult not to be re-checked. Now, it has become conscious in all operations, that their control is continuous.” Anagnostopoulos stressed that “there are electronic means that allow us to thoroughly control all these operations, so it is practically impossible to escape.” As regards price formation after 1 March, when the new measures of the Ministry of Development were implemented, the Secretary-General said that, in cleaning products, personal hygiene products, as well as baby diapers, we have seen significant differences. “From the official data that we have cross-referenced and electronically, we have significant price reductions by midpoints, close to 15%,” he said. “What is not visible directly by consumers – he continued – is that because of the measures taken, all the valuations have been cancelled which, although they had been announced at supermarkets since December, January and February, did not eventually reach the supermarket shelves.” In question whether new measures are planned, Mr. Anagnostopoulos noted: ‘In any case, any measure of what is planned and implemented needs careful study in order not to create greater problems for consumers. We must remember that the prosperity of a market is not only about product prices but also about the variety of products available to consumers. So, overregulations can create serious issues in the market, they can turn as boomerang to the consumer, losing a piece of the variety that is currently available in supermarkets.”