Government proposals to enable regulation of prices and introduce penal responsibility of businesspersons who initiate unjustified price hikes during the euro changeover are practically unenforceable, think representatives of the local retail cooperative chain Coop Jednota Slovensko. Its chairman Gabriel Csollar deems the draft amendment to the law on prices facilitating regulation unnecessary. According to him the current wording of the law is sufficient, though it enables regulation only in exceptional cases. "Our stance is unambiguous: the market regulates prices, competitors control them and customers accept or reject them," he told journalists.
Mr. Csollar emphasized that control organs have to first realize that not sellers create prices and if they want to track these changes, they have to map the whole chain, which means, in the case of food prices, beginning with processing companies and continuing on to the state and sellers. According to COOP Jednota, the working draft of the amendment to the Penal Code is thus inappropriate and unenforceable and moreover, it unprofessionally criminalizes sellers specifically. These are the reasons why COOP Jednota rejects this law. COOP Jednota Slovensko has publicly promised not to abuse the euro switchover for unjustified price hikes. Also, this is why they see government proposals for regulation unnecessary.