Inspections to be launched against ‘covert’ price increases

ANKARA

The Trade Ministry has announced that it will launch inspections across Türkiye against “covert” price increases.

Officials from the ministry will check whether businesses decrease the size of their products but sell them at the same price.

The ministry noted that most consumers do not notice that some companies offer smaller quantity without changing the price of the product, which amount to a covert price increase.

Nationwide inspections will be launched to prevent such unfair business practices and to protect consumers, the ministry said in a statement.

The provincial directorates of commerce are tasked with identifying companies that use such methods and report them to the Board of Advertisement. Producers and sellers that are found to violate the respective regulations will be asked to present their defense and be imposed administrative fines, if necessary, the ministry said.

In a statement the ministry made recently, it said that more than 1.2 million price tags were checked at more than 63,000 businesses in 2022. As a result of those inspections, administrative fines were issued to around 14,000 businesses.

As of August, more than 11,300 businesses were slapped with 19 million Turkish Liras of fines for nearly 19,600 products, the ministry said.