Out of stock, lack of signage, use of posters in gondolas for products that are not part of the program, some of the reported violations
By iProfessional
02/21/2023 – 11:20 a.m.
The Secretary of Commerce worked 769 fines to food companies and supermarkets for $806,450,000 in the last week due to various types of irregularities regarding compliance with the Fair Prices program, as indicated this morning by the head of the area, Matías Tombolini.
“This week we have 769 fines for $806,450,000 for stock shortages, lack of signage, use of signs in shelves on products that are not part of the program, duplication of labeling; And this is somehow one more step in the idea that we cannot bring order to prices and build predictability if we allow abuses,” the official said in dialogue with Radio 10.
The fines – pointed out Tombolini – were deployed both in supermarket chains and “Día, Carrefour, those of the Cencosud Group (Disco, Vea, Jumbo) and the wholesaler Maxiconsumo”; as in food companies such as “Cabrales and Nestlé”.
The secretary explained that, after the minutes were drawn up, “The defendant is discharged and then a fine is issued”.
Fair Prices: breaches were detected in a hypermarket in San Martín
One of the cases is that of a branch of the jumbo u chainlocated at San Lorenzo 3773, in the San Martín district of Buenos Aires, which was closed last night after a “lightning” operation carried out jointly between the Secretary of Commerce and the Undersecretary of Consumer Defense of the Municipality of San Martín together with the area of authorizations of the municipality.
“We received five alerts in a very short period of time. This indicates a severe shortage that was later verifieddeploying an operation at night where we found 32 products that directly did not have stock and more than 14 products that had a shortage,” said Tombolini.
The Ministry of Commerce issued 769 fines to food companies and supermarkets for $806,450,000 in the last week
The secretary clarified that the closure is linked to a violation of municipal ordinance 9,007 “that have to do with an issue related to Firefighters”, and that Commerce is in charge, for its part, of verifying “violations of Law 24,240 on Consumer Defense”.
The program Fair Pricesrelaunched at the beginning of this month, sets the prices of almost 2,000 basic necessities for 120 days, through voluntary agreements with producing and marketing companies.
The products are in the supermarkets, wholesale distributors and participating businesses to the program by province or region. Similarly, it stipulates a 3.2% monthly increase on another 50,000 products until June 30.
