On Monday morning, the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, accompanied by the Minister of Development, Kostas Skrekas, was at DIMEA ((Interagency Market Control Unit)), sending, among other things, positive messages about the operation of the market and the presence of the state in favor of the consumer.

“The market works smoothly and transparently,” the prime minister noted, among other things, and noted that “I am a person who believes in the free economy and competition. But I have no illusions and I don’t believe that the markets can automatically and through some magic hand regulate themselves, which is why the control of the state, especially in times when we have to deal with significant imported inflationary pressures, is so important” stressing among other things that ” the initiative to strengthen DIMEA a single arrow in our quiver to address accuracy.’

“We have the obligation to do the best we can to contain prices and where we can reduce them” while at the same time making a small assessment on the occasion of the household basket, Christmas, the price reduction sign and extensive reference to the e-consumer underlined how “digital tools will increasingly enter our lives».

For his part, Mr. Skrekas, speaking briefly, mainly referred to the protection of consumers from accuracy and also the goal of DIMEA, which is none other than the smooth implementation of all the measures provided for.

The statements of the Prime Minister, Mr. Mitsotakis, in detail

“Today I wanted to be at the Ministry of Development to be able to personally congratulate the executives of the Inter-agency Market Control Unit, now known as DIMEA.

I want to remind that DIMEA was established by the government of New Democracy and by the previous leadership of the Ministry of Development in 2020 and has already performed an important task in terms of market control, consumer protection and strengthening healthy entrepreneurship.

I am a man who believes in free economy and competition. But I am under no illusions and I do not believe that the markets can automatically and through some magic hand regulate themselves, which is why the control of the state, especially in times when we have to deal with significant imported inflationary pressures, is so important.

And indeed tens of thousands of checks have already been carried out since DIMEA was created. Many fines have been imposed, as you know. Half of these fines have already been collected and I think it has been established in the market itself that there is a mechanism of the state which can identify violations such as e.g. is the exceeding of the specified profit margin or fictitious discounts and to intervene repressively in order to protect free competition and above all to protect the consumer.

I want to emphasize that the initiative we have taken to strengthen DIMEA is just one arrow in our quiver to deal with the problem of imported precision.

We know very well that households today are being tested by a problem, which obviously does not concern only Greece, but we have an obligation to do our best to help contain the increase in prices and, where possible, to reduce them. That’s why tools such as the permanent price reduction, the 5% tag on over 1,200 products have already been included in this price reduction framework, the Christmas basket will be another tool that will help us hold down the prices for the Christmas table . This year we are putting special emphasis especially on government products, so that we can see prices which why not be lower than the prices we had last Easter. And of course I want to congratulate the Ministry as a whole and especially the General Secretariat for the introduction of new digital tools, which help the control mechanisms to do their work more efficiently on the one hand, and the consumer on the other hand to compare products and when he decides that he can and wants to report unfair practices, to be able to do so. These digital tools will increasingly enter our lives. The e-consumer is a very useful tool. It still hasn’t reached the level of use we think it deserves, but we will continue to work with the European Union as well so that we can increasingly use the technology to have greater price transparency, to deal with circumvention of its operation market and try to always be one step ahead of those who may maliciously think of how to deceive the consumer.

Let me give just two examples. Fictitious discounts. A product that suddenly from one day to the next increases the reference price for absolutely no reason and shows a fictitiously bigger discount, while the price of the product is exactly the same. And other incidents we discussed today, such as possibly fake product reviews. These are all problems that we will need to address. I emphasize that these are not only problems concerning the Greek market, they concern the European market as a whole, but we will do our best to ensure that the market really works properly and a market that works properly and competitively, with price transparency is ultimately beneficial of the consumer, so we will continue this effort.

I also want to congratulate the Governor of DIMEA and all the executives. Let me assure everyone that we will continue to strengthen DIMEA with additional staff but also with equipment through European funds, from scanners to new vehicles and integrated information systems, which are so important because obviously this effort to properly control the market is a an effort that continues in perpetuity and will continue to interest us when we have left behind this era of large price increases.

So I wish happy holidays and good audits to DIMEA executives, as now that there is intense commercial activity due to the Christmas season, the presence of the state should be felt even more.