Senate passes bill tripling fines for unfair commercial practices

Retailers that resort to unfair commercial practices may pay fines three times as high from now, according to a bill passed by the Senate yesterday. The draft for amending the Law no. 363/2007 for fighting unfair retailer practices was passed with 42 votes in favor, 23 votes against and six abstentions, after the Senate"s Economic Commission had initially repealed the initiative.

According to the proposal, as quoted by Agerpres, retailers guilty of unfair practices against their customers will be forced to pay interests of up to 10,000 to 100,000 lei, three times the current fine levels. Also, changes proposed include higher fines for failure to comply with the regulations of the National Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC) (fines would be increased from 6,000-60,000 lei to 20,000-100,000 lei).

The Economic Commission criticized the hike in fines in its negative report which was also repealed by the Senate, saying it could bankrupt many small businesses.

One of the initiators of the project, Democrat Liberal Senator Iulian Urban, said his initiative would not affect small retailers, who aren"t powerful enough to run large scale promotions.

"Small stores aren"t able to run promotions and like major retail chains, who cover 30-40% of the Romanian market do", the senator said.

What"s more, the legislative proposal also included misleading prices on the list of unfair commercial prices.

Thus, the new bill forbids "selling products for which prices advertised on the Web or using flyers don"t match those displayed on the shelves and on the receipt", the law states.

The draft will be forwarded to the Chamber of Deputies.