As part of the winter sale period, the shops will be open today, Sunday 14 January, with suggested opening hours for smaller shops from 11am. until 6 p.m. and for chain stores and department stores from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.

The commercial world urges the consumer public to take advantage of the high volume discounts while as the president of the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vassilis Korkidis states to APE-MBE: “What is certain is that the intensity and duration of the accuracy is difficult to deal with, since it depends on the cost and production conditions, competition, supply and demand , the pricing strategies, taxation and imports by multinationals, which are difficult to control, since they concentrate the availability of necessary consumer goods in the EU. However, the government has proven once again that it is trying to stand by society as a whole, supporting the market, given the cyclicality of the economy with measured measures, as its primary concern remains the defense of households and businesses. The point is that the “multi-level prices” of the multinationals do not have “discrepancies” on the Greek shelves compared to other European countries. I hope DIMEA controls and stiff fines will stop the unfair profiteering and prevent misleading offers.

We suggest, however, that the regular winter sales should be extended to the food business sector with a larger participation of supermarkets to defeat, all together, punctuality and curb inflation in our country by one unit.”

The importance of the reaction of consumers themselves

Although accuracy is listed as the main problem for citizens, according to an EU survey, the Greek consumer is among the worst informed on rights issues.

“Consumer education is needed” has declared Panagiota Kalapotharakou, president of the Quality of Life Consumers Union-EKPOIZO, while underlining that in our country there is a lack of a robust consumer-citizen movement, even though consumer associations have achieved important individual victories in issues concerning overdraft, bank charges, interest rates, energy bills, telecoms, e-commerce etc.

At the same time, the Competition Commission has emphasized that consumers themselves now have the possibility to file compensation lawsuits for violations of competition provisions.

It is noted that, these days, the institutional framework for the exercise of the right to collective actions (representative actions) by consumer organizations is being completed. In particular, it is foreseen that the General Secretariat of Trade of the Ministry of Development maintains the Register of Consumer Associations (MEK) and the ministry proceeds with a new, scrutinizing check regarding consumer associations in order to establish that they are not just “stamps” and are legalized to proceed with collective actions .

In the meantime, it is recalled that the General Federation of Consumers of Greece is organizing for January 17, a protest rally outside the Ministry of Development, in Kaningos Square, “in order to send a message against accuracy and profiteering”.