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Victoria Mindova

A price ceiling of 15 essential to households commodities as well as price ceiling of gasoline sold by refiners are just some of the proposals of the councilors of Piraeus in the measures to fight the high prices. After a detailed study carried out on the market in the coastal municipality, the mayor of Piraeus Yiannis Mihas announced that in some cases a 451% increase in the price of imports registered from the moment the product enters the port to the end consumer price is observed. The study was presented to journalists and disclosed under the name of "market distortions and opportunities for consumers protection". The most shocking are the examples of food products, where the rice is sold in some big supermarkets with an increases of over five times, although they themselves are importers. Otherwise the price of the cheapest coffee, nescafe also has an astronomical mark-up for the end buyer, which exceeds 340 percent. Let us not forget that the nescafe, is fast moving consumer goods in Greece because the frappe is a national drink, and the average price of cold frappe in an ordinary cafeteria is about 3.5 euro.

Another problem that market analysts have discovered is the phenomenon of false promotions offered in large stores. An example of this was given with the "bargain" offers of a famous brand of detergent, showing on the package a 50% reduction. The problem is that in small letters almost invisible to the eye of ordinary consumer, the fifty percent do not refer to the price but to the quantity of detergent used in the measuring cup inside the box for a single laundry. After an analysis was carried out, the experts determined that the real benefit to the consumer is only about 10% (and  not the promised50%), but only if you buy the biggest package offered by the product.

The study indicates that when carrying out the comparative analysis between the prices of products of famous international companies in Greece and Cyprus huge differences occur. For the same product Cypriots pay an average of 6.35 percent to 63.8 percent less than the Greeks. According to the mayor of Piraeus, this difference is a result of the good disposition of the Greek market to speculative practices, the lack of effective control and government carelessness. "Clearly, the policies to increase the competitiveness and the consumer protection by the previous, but also by the current government do not work out," says Yiannis Mihas. Therefore the Piraeus municipality prepared a list of proposals to the Ministry of economy, competitiveness and the merchant marine to be included in the new law on competitiveness. The mayor stressed on the fact that at a period of crisis when the income of the citizens is reduced there should be a corresponding price adjustment for the products offered by large corporations because the main victims will remain the ordinary consumers and small merchants. He was explicit that we can not talk about free market and competitiveness, when in the cases of established violations relevant penalties are not enforced.

The councilors of Piraeus said that if the government remained indifferent to the prices dictated by the multinational companies they will turn to the European Commission for protection of the competitiveness.