INAE swoop on ‘Zimpeto’ to combat price speculation

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INAE swoop on ‘Zimpeto’ to combat price speculation

12:23 CAT | 08 Dec 2017

O País

The National Inspection of Economic Activities (INAE) and the National Institute for Standardisation and Quality (INOQQ) will boost inspections in the Zimpeto wholesale market during the festive season to combat price speculation and underweighing.

The measure was announced during the posted every Monday STV Consumer Time programme in response to an anonymous consumer complaint.

“Three weeks ago, I bought a 10 kg bag of potatoes, but I suspected there was not that much in the bag. When I got home, I weighed it and discovered that it was actually only 8.5 kilograms,” the complainant said, pleading for more INAE supervision in the market.

The INAE however maintains that there have been improvements, with vendors pricing products better. The focus must now shift to quantity.

Article 5 of the Consumer Protection Law states that “as consumers, citizens have the right to protection of their economic interests”. On the subject, particularly regarding price speculation, lawyer Rodrigo Rocha explains that “when there is a price increase that is not accompanied by an increase in costs for the supply of the same, where we can see that the agent’s profit margin is rising without an increase in costs we are facing a situation which the Consumer Protection Law prohibits. ”

Rocha advises consumers to report the problem to institutions such as INAE, stressing that “there is no instrument in place that obliges the economic agent to offer his bills to consumers to prove that he is within the allowed profit margin”.

Source: O País