The Minister of Development, Mr. Kostas Skrekasvisited today, Monday July 10, first day of summer sales, shops in the center of Athens.

Mr. K. Skrekas, accompanied by the General Secretariat of Trade & Consumer Protection, Mr. Sotiris Anagnostopoulos and the President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Stavros Kafounis, discussed with traders, workers and consumers on market movement both on the first day of sales and throughout 2023 as well as general market-related issues.

The Minister of Development, Kostas Skrekas, said: “On the first day of the summer sales today, we visited the market where we talked with traders, workers and consumers and found an oversupply of products, big discounts, very good prices and strong buying interest. The first samples are positive and it seems that the first half of the year, according to what the shopkeepers in the center of Athens told us, has gone better than the corresponding first half of last year. We, as the responsible Ministry, ensure with the control mechanisms that there will be fair discounts for consumers. We want to prevent phenomena of misleading discounts and I want to assure consumers that the state apparatus will do everything necessary to protect them from unfair commercial practices.

In the past period, with a new mechanism, we as a Ministry have collected product prices from hundreds of stores and chain stores. These prices will be compared with in-store prices from today onwards and where fictitious or fictitious discounts are found to exist, very severe penalties will be imposed. Therefore, the controls in the market, beyond the on-site levels of the controllers, are also done by electronic means, so we are developing a complete system of controls”.

For his part, the President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Stavros Kafounis, stated: “I hope that through fruitful dialogue, bold reforms will be quickly implemented that will resolve persistent problems and allow trade and the real economy to grow at a strong pace. The discount season creates great expectations for businesses as well as consumers and I hope it will bring the expected results for the merchants of the whole country.”