Ministry announces: Excessive price inspections in supermarkets

The Ministry of Trade has intensified its inspections against unfair price hikes and hoarding following incoming complaints. In the first 9 months of 2024, more than 340 thousand businesses were inspected and millions of liras in fines were issued.

Don't leave your news choices to an algorithm - decide for yourself what you read. Add 12punto to your preferred sources!

Ministry announces: Excessive price inspections in supermarkets

Reporting that many complaints have been received regarding unfair price hikes in supermarkets, the Ministry of Trade announced that it has tightened inspections against excessive pricing and hoarding.

In a statement issued by the Ministry under the heading "No tolerance for unfair price hikes," the following expressions were included:

"As the Ministry of Trade, maximum inspections are being carried out against potential excessive price hikes and hoarding activities in essential goods and services sectors that meet our citizens' basic needs such as nutrition, healthy living, housing, and protection.

Within the scope of the fight against excessive price hikes, daily routine inspections are carried out in our 81 provinces. As a result of the inspections, products found to have been subjected to excessive price hikes are meticulously evaluated by the Unfair Price Evaluation Board, and administrative fines ranging from 100,000 TL to 1,000,000 TL are applied based on various criteria."

1.5 BILLION TL IN ADMINISTRATIVE FINES APPLIED

In this context, the Ministry of Trade's internal trade units inspected 170,207 businesses in 2023. Administrative fines of approximately 1.5 billion liras (1 billion 498 million TL) were applied to 48,628 natural and legal persons.

The Competition Board also issued a total of 2.7 billion liras in administrative fines to 166 companies it investigated in 2023.

This year, as a result of inspections conducted in the first 9 months, the Ministry of Trade's internal trade units inspected 340,485 businesses. Of these, 1 billion 331 million liras in administrative fines were applied to 153,063 businesses. Similarly, the Competition Board has applied 4 billion 848 million liras in administrative fines to 147 companies in the first 9 months of 2024.

On the other hand, inspections have been tightened in line with complaints reflected in the public domain recently, especially regarding pricing in supermarkets.

Upon findings that unfair price hikes are occurring at these points where our people meet their most basic needs, our Ministry of Trade is intensifying its inspections and taking the necessary steps to prevent this situation.

CONTROLS INCREASED

The Ministry of Trade meticulously examines every price increase made on basic consumer products in order to protect the price balance in the market and prevent our citizens from being victimized.

In this context, the inspection teams of the Provincial Directorates of Trade have further increased their controls, especially in supermarkets where the public's essential needs are sold."

As the Ministry of Trade, There is No Tolerance for Unfair Price Hikes in Supermarkets

(07.10.2024) pic.twitter.com/VwgwYAXvCu
— T.C. Ticaret Bakanlığı (@ticaret) October 7, 2024