Competition Council launches food price monitor, meant to help increasing competition and cheapening products

Competition Council on Tuesday launched the platform "Food Price Monitor," which allows the comparison of more than 30,000 products from 1,700 stores from all over the country, meant to help strengthening competition on this market and cheapening foodstuffs at the most expensive stores. 

"When I have a shopping list, I can easily compare prices, without the need of going from store to store. I can do that easily, on my phone or on my computer. People are interested in the lowest prices and this transparency on the market forces stores with the highest prices to drop them, to bring them down to the level of the smaller prices, so that competition will function more efficiently. Our purpose is to see prices converging towards the lowest level," stated the head of the Competition Council, Bogdan Chiritoriu, at the launch of the platform. 

He added the institution he represents will monitor these prices and come up with info updates regularly. 

In the event that the information on their applications differ from reality, consumers can notify the Competition Council and the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC). 

European legislation forces authorities in the member states to launch such price monitors on various markets, he brought to mind. 

"This soft could easily be adjusted to other fields, such as the banking field; in fact, ANPC is already preparing such price monitor, and we can help them," said Chiritoiu. 

The Competition Council on July 1 2019 launched the platform "Price Monitor for Fuels," which includes information about the tariffs practiced by the large gas station chains in Romania. 

In end December 2018, the Competition Council signed a 1.42 million worth agreement with the Maguay company to build the application, both for fuels and for foodstuffs.